Plights of Time: The Breaking of Fate
by Ayame Majikku
Summary: Timothy Parker is a normal teenage boy... Until a trip to a forest changes his life forever! Now he, the reincarnation of Sonic the Hedgehog, must stop his teacher Dr. Eggman from taking over the world. But things are never that easy. KnuxRouge
1. Ties of Fate

Hello, and welcome to this Sonic fanfic! I plan for there to be four parts of this, and this is part one, chapter one! Yay for starting it out! I hope you all like it... this was originally just going to be a "wee, daydream whenever!" thing for me, but after what will be _the coolest_ chapter _ever_ (which won't be for a while), I suddenly started expanding the idea and making it something _much_ more. So yeah, please enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, or any other character from the games or Sonic X. They're owned by Sonic Team.

**--Ties of Fate--**

_A boy of about ten stared at three forms in the darkness. His blonde hair fell straight around his face and his tired blue eyes tried to make out the figures. He stood in the park at his school in the middle of a moonless night with absolutely no clue how he got there. With no light at all, he could only see the outlines of the three creatures in front of them. "Who... are you?" he heard himself ask._

_Somehow, the faces of the creatures flashed brightly before his eyes, one by one: a blue hedgehog with green eyes and a cocky grin, a yellow fox with blue eyes and a kind smile, and a red echidna with purple eyes and a intimidating glare._

Miles Prower woke up from the dream. He stared around the room, trying to get a grasp of reality. The alarm next to him suddenly beeped loudly, waking the boy up. He turned if off and stared at the time. _I guess I should get ready for school..._ he thought as he put his glasses on. He started to get out of bed when he remembered his dream. _Who were they?_ he wondered as their images flashed in his head again.

----

Miles was the first person in the classroom that morning. He took his seat at his and started reading a book as other people started coming in.

"Morning..." a boy with messy blue hair greeted Miles as he walked over. He yawned and plumped into his desk, which was right next to Miles.

"Good morning, Tim," Miles greeted. Timothy Parker was a boy of fifteen, and Miles' best friend. He wore the usual blue school uniform. He closed his green eyes and rested his head in his arms, hating to wake up so early.

"Don't fall asleep during class today," the boy behind him warned. "I'm not waking you up this time." The speaker was Hiei Parker. He looked almost exactly like his twin, Timothy, except his hair was black and his almost cold eyes were red.

"That's nice, bro..." Tim muttered, obviously not paying attention.

"Sleeping in class again?" a voice taunted. Tim tiredly looked up to see the face he hated most staring down at him. "No wonder my grades are better than yours."

Tim picked himself up, suddenly awake and angry. "I'm not sleeping! Besides, I always finish things faster than you."

"Because you guess on all of the problems," the other boy pointed out tactfully. His name was Kevin Hogosha, and he and Tim competed at _everything_. Kevin was sixteen, and thus one of the oldest in the class. He had long, thin red hair pulled back in a low ponytail. Oddly, his eyes were purple. He was known for getting in fights and winning almost every time. The only fight he hadn't won had been against Tim, and Tim had never won, either—one of their friends always called it off.

"Tim-o-thy!" a voice rang through the air. A girl with short pink hair ran up to Tim's desk, a smile on her face. "Good morning!" This girl was Emily Camellia. She wore the blue girl's uniform and a matching hair band. Her green eyes shone with excitement. She and Tim had been friends since sixth grade, and during that time, she had developed an obvious crush on him.

"Morning..." Tim greeted, annoyed. Emily was a great friend, but lately, her little crush on him had done nothing but annoyed him. He wished so much that she could just be a normal friend like she used to be.

Miles sighed. In all of this excitement, he would have to wait to talk to Tim about his dream. Tim was his best friend, and thus, the easiest person Miles could talk to.

"Everyone in your seats!" the teacher barked as he walked in. The students moved around until everyone sat in their appropriate seat as the teacher walked up to the front. Dr. Eggman was the teacher's name. He was a fat, bald man. He wore dark blue glasses, a red shirt, and black pants. He had an enormous red nose and a huge mustache. After Kevin, Dr. Eggman was Tim's least favorite person. "Pass up your homework." Students grumbled and papers rustled as the students slowly started passing their homework up the rows.

"Oh yeah...!" Tim burst out softly, sounding worried.

"Did you forget again?" Miles whispered.

"No, Hiei reminded me... but I wanted you to check my answers..." Tim sighed as he took the papers from behind him. "Oh well..."

"Don't worry about how you did on this assignment—when we get it back, I'll explain everything to you."

"Okay..." Tim muttered, but he hated getting a worse grade on anything than Kevin. He threw a glare at the boy, who sat in front of him, before passing up the papers.

"You just need to be ready for the test. I'll help you get a one hundred on this one!" Miles comforted.

"...Yeah! I'll do it! Then _I'll_ be the one laughing!"

"I asked you to pass up your homework, not to talk," Dr. Eggman yelled, standing in front of Tim's desk. "Do you need another detention to learn that, Timothy Parker?"

"N-no, Sir!" Tim answered as many students giggled. Dr. Eggman glared down at the nervous boy before turning around and walking back to the front of the class. As soon as the teacher's back was turned, Tim stuck out his tongue and started making faces. Anyone who could see laughed, making Dr. Eggman turn around. However, by the time he could see, Tim had already put on a nervous face again. Hiei sighed at his brother's foolishness.

----

Tim yawned at lunch. Lunch was the only long free time for the high schoolers—they could take their lunch and sit wherever they wanted and have fun with their friends until the bell rang. Tim's group always sat outside under three trees.

"Are you still tired?" Miles asked.

"Of course! School is boring!" He stared at the fence that separated their school from the street. "I wish we didn't have school. Then we could do whatever we wanted to do all day!"

"But if it wasn't for school, you wouldn't know anything—"

"Who needs to know these things?"

"—and you wouldn't have met most of your friends."

Miles got him there. Tim loved his friends and wouldn't give them up for the world. "...Yeah, well, it was good for that, now can it be over?"

Miles laughed. "Sorry, Tim, but we still have a while to go."

"This _is_ really boring, though," Emily pointed out in Tim's defense. "Wouldn't it be so much more exciting if something were to happen?"

"Be careful what you wish for..." Miles warned.

"I agree! Why can't we have any adventures in this world? Our ancestors did a pretty good job of making us bored. Couldn't they have at least saved _some_ discoveries for us?"

"There's still space..."

"And what are the chances that I'll go into space?" Tim sighed. "I want some excitement! I'm bored with this."

"What are you yelling about now?" Hiei demanded as he walked up and sat down with his lunch.

"I know!" Emily burst out. "We should _make_ an adventure! We can go into the woods outside of the city and make a movie!"

"That's a great idea!" another member of their group, a brunette named Samantha, agreed. "Alice is pretty good at directing, and Emily's great at acting."

The last member of the group, a blonde girl, smiled. "I'll do my best to write a good script. Let's go to the forest after school to take a look."

"All right! This'll be so much fun!" Tim yelled happily. "I can't wait!"

"Worry about that later and eat your lunch now, before class starts again," Hiei scolded. Tim, remembering how hungry he was, began stuffing food in his mouth happily.

On a bench outside sat Kevin's group, also talking. His group consisted of five boys, including Kevin himself, and one girl.

"Did you hear? It was all over the news!" The boy named Henry started the conversation, as usual.

"There's _always_ something on the news," another boy, Mike, pointed out. "Why do you watch it so much? It's disgusting, some of the things that people do."

"Yeah, I'm amazed Ruby hasn't been put on there yet," a third boy, Paul, joked. All of them except Kevin laughed.

"Hey," the girl said while smiling, "why would _I_ be on there? I'm not a thief or anything!"

"Yeah you are, you steal men's hearts!" the last boy, John, joined in.

"I can't help that I'm charming," said Ruby Abalone, quite full of herself. She wore the usual school uniform, but her skirt was shorter than most. She had short white hair that flipped out away from her face. She was taller than most girls in the class and wore more make-up by far. Her green eyes watched each of the boys playfully. "Although there's one man that's not interested in my charm."

"Oh? Who could that be?"

Kevin stared across the field, trying to tune them out. _When did she become like this...?_ he couldn't help but wonder again. The others continued joking around, forgetting about Henry's original topic.

"Kevin? Are you okay?"

Kevin glanced over. "Yeah."

"Well, as I was originally going to say," Henry started, calling for silence. He soon got it as the others tuned in, curious despite themselves. "It's been all over the news... They say that the other day..."

----

Three boys and three girls ran off of the train happily. The train led to a lovely clearing just outside of the city. They stared at the beautiful waterfall and pond across from them. On its left stood the tall forest they were traveling to, and on its right was the entrance to a cave in the huge rock. Even further to the right was a huge hill, and on top of the hill stood an old wooden house. A road led off of the hill, on the cliff side.

"Wow!" Miles called out, observing the house. "That person must own an airplane—that looks like a runway! That's so cool!" The others smiled at their young friend's interest in flying before starting down the stairs that led to the ground. Miles stared a little longer before realizing that the others were already below him. He ran down to catch up.

"There's so much here... we should look at everything!" said Alice.

"Just one rule: I'm not getting in the water," Tim declared. The others laughed and agreed; they all understood that Tim couldn't swim and was scared of the water, so they weren't going to put him near it.

"Let's check out the forest first!" Emily suggested.

"All right!" Tim immediately started running. The others chased after him, but soon after entering the forest, they lost him.

"Tim!"

"Tim, where are you?"

"Come out!" They called for him, worried.

Hiei sighed. "There's nothing to worry about if it's _him_. He's just playing some silly joke."

"Aww, Hiei! Why must you ruin my fun?" Tim asked as he hung upside down from a tree. Sam and Alice laughed, saying how silly Tim looked. Tim grinned while upside down before pulling himself up. He climbed down to a lower branch and then jumped out of the tree.

"This place is so beautiful... it gives me so many ideas!" Alice said. She went into a daze as she started daydreaming.

"Just make sure there are some _romantic_ scenes in there!" Emily said, also dreaming.

Tim cringed. "How about _not_."

A cell phone rang, making them all turn. Miles reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone. "Hello? ...What's wrong?"

This caught everyone's attention. "What's going on?" Tim demanded, worried. Miles held up a hand to tell them to hold on while he listened.

"...What? What do you mean? ...Hold on, I'll be home to see soon."

"Well?" Tim asked as Miles hung up.

"I'm not quite sure," the boy answered, "but my sister needs me. I have to go now... I'll see you guys tomorrow!"

"Okay. I hope everything's all right. Bye, Miles!"

"Bye!" Miles ran off towards the train. They watched him in silence until they couldn't see him anymore.

"I wonder what's going on... I hope his sister's all right..." Emily said, worried.

"It's probably nothing," Sam comforted. "Millie's really sweet, but she has a tendency of worrying and over exaggerating. She was once worried senseless about a frog she found in the city because it wasn't in water."

Tim laughed. "I remember hearing about that. Miles said that she put it in the bathtub."

"She's really fond of animals, though," Emily pointed out.

Tim stared out into the forest. "I just hope everything's okay... What?" the scenery around him quickly faded to black, and his friends disappeared in the darkness. There was nothing around him but infinite darkness. He looked around, trying to see something, _anything_, in this place. "Guys? Where are you? What happened?" He stared down at his feet—there was no ground, only the same darkness that surrounded him. He stared at his shoes, not even realizing that a minute ago they had been black school shoes, not red tennis shoes. _What's... going on...? Wait a minute...!_ He pulled his hands up in front of his face. He could clearly see them, but instead of seeing his bare hands, he now wore white gloves. "Okay, first of all, how can I see myself in pitch black? And second of all, since _when_ was I wearing gloves?" he called out into the darkness.

Suddenly three hooded figures stood before him. The tallest wore a light blue cloak, the middle one wore a light red cloak, and the shortest one, who stood almost eye-to-eye with Tim, wore a light green cloak. _Whoa, these people are _tall!

The short green one pointed at him. With a girl's voice, the person said, "It is time for you to awaken... Sonic the Hedgehog!"

"Huh? What are you talking about? Who's Sonic?" He looked behind him to find no one. The girl still pointed straight at him. "Why are you pointing at me? I'm Timothy Parker... a human. Hedgehogs are really small animals."

The one in red, a boy by the sound, laughed.

"You should take a look at yourself, then," the tallest one in blue suggested. That one had the voice of a girl, and she handed a mirror to Tim. After Tim took it, her slender human hand retreated back into the cloak.

Tim stared into the mirror to find that he wasn't human anymore—he was a walking blue hedgehog. His green eyes were huge in surprise. The mirror disappeared and the darkness vanished into the light of the forest.

"Tim? Are you okay?" Emily asked curiously, peering up at him.

"Huh?" He looked around to see the forest and his friends again. He stared at his hands to see that they were bare human hands again. "Yeah, I'm fine..."

"You don't sound fine," Hiei spoke up. "You were staring off into space just a minute ago... You look kind of pale. Maybe we should go home."

"No, I'm fine! Let's look around some more!" Tim insisted as he started walking. _What... was that?_ he wondered as he walked, ignoring the others as they ran to catch up and continued talking. _Who were they? What did they mean? Who's Sonic? And why did I look like a hedgehog?_

----

"Millie! What's going on?" Miles demanded as he threw open the door. He quickly closed it behind himself and ran inside.

"I'm upstairs," a young girl's voice called. Miles ran up stairs and entered his sister's room.

His sister Millie stood in the room, holding her hands behind her back. She was a young girl, only about seven or eight, and very cute. She had long, cream-colored hair pulled up into pigtails, and she wore a cute orange dress. Her brown eyes danced on her round face.

"I'm sorry to call you back like that, brother," she said. "It's not harmful like I thought at first." She giggled.

"What are you talking about? What are you hiding behind your back?"

"I don't know what it is exactly, but it's kind... see?" She pulled her hands out from behind her back and put them together again in front of her brother's face. On her hands sat a little blue creature. This creature had pale pink wings and a red bow around its neck. The tips of its feet and hands were yellow, and as its head turned into a curved point at the top, it changed to yellow. A yellow ball floated above its head. The rest of it was blue. It only said "Chao," but it said it quite happily.

"What is that?"

"I don't know, but it's very kind."

"Chao chao!" The creature flew out of Millie's hands and hovered in the air. Millie giggled. "Can we keep it, Miles?"

"Well, we don't really know what it is, and we'd have to ask the parents, but if they don't mind, then I don't see why not. Oh! And if... this thing doesn't mind."

"Chao! Chao chao chao!" the creature hugged Millie's head, making the girl giggle some more.

"Where did you find it?"

"It came into the house. What are we going to name you..."

"Huh?"

"Chao!" The creature flew out of the room. Millie chased after it.

"Wait, Mr. Chao!" she called. Miles also followed. The creature led the way to the kitchen, where it attempted to pull open the refrigerator. Millie helped it. The creature then dug around until it found what it was looking for. It picked up a container of cheese.

"Chao chao!" it said as it pointed to the cheese.

"You want to be called Cheese?"

"Chao!" It nodded ferociously.

Millie laughed. "Okay, Cheese!" Cheese put the cheese back and Millie closed the refrigerator. Cheese then turned to them and moved its arms and talked.

"Huh? Is something wrong, Cheese?"

"I think Cheese is trying to tell us something..." Miles said.

"Chao chao!" Cheese pointed to Miles to let them know that he was right. Cheese then pointed to Millie and then to its closed eyes.

"Close my eyes?" Millie asked as she did so. Cheese cried out in happiness. It touched Millie's forehead and closed its own eyes. The two suddenly shone in a bright light, making Miles close his eyes.

"What's going on? Millie?"

----

The five friends road the train back to the city, talking the whole way.

"We're here," Hiei announced as he walked to the door. He was the first out. The others followed him, Tim in the back. The doors close in front of Tim, separating him from his friends. The train started moving.

"Great," Tim muttered angrily as he plopped down in a seat. "Now I have to wait longer. I hate waiting."

_Then why not run?_ a boy's voice asked in Tim's head.

"Are you crazy?" Tim demanded out loud, making everyone stare. He blushed in embarrassment, shrinking down in his chair in an attempt to hide from the stares. _I can't run faster than this train!_ he thought, but the voice from before didn't answer. It seemed to be gone. _Run, huh?_ He remembered his experience in the woods. _Well, why not give it a go? I'd much rather run than sit on this thing._

Tim got off at the next stop, which was in a part of the city that he didn't know. He found the restroom near the train and picked a stall. He stood against the door, wondering what on earth he was thinking. _Why am I even trying? I can't run that fast... I don't even know what _happened_ in the forest... Why did I look like a hedgehog in that darkness? Who were those people? Sonic the Hedgehog..._ He closed his eyes and imagined how he looked as a hedgehog, still trying to figure out what happened.

When he opened his eyes, his world suddenly seemed smaller. "...Huh? How'd I get so short?" He stared down at his feet to see red tennis shoes and blue legs. Panicking, he turned his attention to his hands, only to find them gloved. "Not again! How to I change back? How'd I even _get_ like this?"

Screaming outside broke his train of thought. He heard footsteps run into the restroom.

"Who _was_ that?" someone said from the main part of the bathroom.

"I don't know, but those machines were scary... We'd better hide in here before he _kills_ us or something!"

"What?" the blue hedgehog burst out. He thrust open the stall door, breaking the lock, and ran out as fast as he could to see what they were talking about. However, his speed was _much_ greater than he had imagined. Unable to see anything fast enough to react, he ran straight into the wall of the restroom. "Oww..." he muttered as he staggered and held his hurting nose.

"Is that a... blue hedgehog?"

"You see it, too? Are we going crazy?"

"I don't know, but I don't think this can get any weirder!"

_You think _you're_ going crazy..._ the hedgehog thought dryly. _Let's try jogging this time..._ He jogged out at his usual running speed. _I guess this is what that person meant by 'try running'..._

He entered the city, where people were running, but surprisingly enough, most people didn't notice the huge blue walking hedgehog, despite how much he stood out. Those who did see him screamed at him and ran as far away from him as they could without turning around. "You'd think they saw a monster or something..." he muttered to himself.

He heard the sound of metal stomping on the concrete roads ahead of him, past the running and screaming people. _What's going on...?_ He tried jogging past the people, but he found it hard to make his way through the crowd. They ended up pushing him around and trampling on him since he was so small. _This isn't working..._ He looked around, wondering what he could do. He noticed a shop nearby with a cloth hanging over it. _Well, I can run faster than ever imagined, so why not try?_

He jumped out of the crowd and towards the cloth. He landed on it and the cloth strained down under the momentum of the hedgehog. The cloth released and he jumped again, thrusting himself up into the air. He soon stared down at the city from the tops of the tallest buildings, amazed. That moment seemed to last forever as he stared down at the tiny buildings, cars, and people. As he started going down, he noticed the problem—orange robots were holding people hostage. A fat man hovered above them in a silver machine.

_Wait a sec... Is that my _teacher_? Dr. Eggman? What's he doing?_ The hedgehog landed on the roof of a building. He ran across it and jumped again, making sure he would come down on the robots. _Okay, what am I planning on doing... I'm coming down on a bunch of robots and my teacher, _fast_. And I can't let them hurt those people... What can _I_ do?_

"I demand control of this city, so it can become the start of my Eggman Empire!" Dr. Eggman declared as the hedgehog fell into hearing range.

_Think fast, Tim... you're almost there..._ he told himself, having absolutely no clue how he was planning on doing, or why he even tried to do something in the first place. _You like hedgehogs... so what do _normal_ hedgehogs do...?_ He imagined a normal hedgehog balling up and thrusting its spikes out in defense from a bigger creature.

He pulled his hands and feet in to curl up. He accidentally fell forwards and started spinning. _Ack! How do I stop?_ He hit the ground as a spinning ball and bounced up again. _Never mind, no time for that._ He bounced again, but this time, he flung his hand out and pushed off of the ground, heading straight for the robots. He hit one and immediately hurled himself at another. He went around in a deformed circle, breaking through all of the robots with his spinning spikes. Not knowing how to stop, he went straight through a wall before figuring out how to uncurl. He hit the opposite wall with a _thud_ and fell to the ground. He slowly picked himself up, his back aching. People stared through the hole, wondering just what he was.

The blue hedgehog trudged out of the hole, and anyone standing there quickly moved far away, worried that he would hurt them. The police had their guns aimed at Dr. Eggman, but those closest to the hedgehog aimed their guns at him as he came out. He held his hands up.

"Calm down, don't be so jumpy. I'm on your side."

"I-it talks!"

"Take your guns off of it—it destroyed all of these robots," the officer commanded. He turned to the blue creature, whose hands were now down. "What... are you?"

"What's it _look_ like? I'm a hu—" He stopped himself. _No I'm not, I'm a..._ "A hedgehog!"

"A hedgehog? I've never seen any hedgehog like you!" Dr. Eggman spat. "How did you destroy all of my robots so quickly?"

_Because I'm awesome,_ the hedgehog thought, but he held his tongue. Instead, he only smirked at the doctor.

"...This is rather odd... Do you have a name, hedgehog?" the officer asked, feeling embarrassed at this wild conversation.

"Of course! Who doesn't? I'm—" He caught the doctor's glaring eye and decided maybe it wasn't smart say "Timothy Parker." Who would believe him if he did? Plus, there was no telling what Dr. Eggman could do to Tim and his brother while bending the school rules as he pleased. So instead, he said the first thing that came to mind: "Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog."

"Sonic the Hedgehog, is it? Well, next time I'll make sure you don't get in my way!" Dr. Eggman pushed a button in his craft. A small capsule fell from his machine before exploding into a ton of smoke. Sonic and the police started coughing up the smoke that attempted to enter their lungs. None of them noticed Dr. Eggman fly away with a gas mask on.

----

And that was chapter one. I hope you enjoyed! I'll get chapter two up... sometime... if you guys like it. o.o'

Good luck!

Sonic Triple Kingdom

-Ayame


	2. A Helping Hand

I got bored, so I'm posting chapter two. o.o' Wow, this one's longer than I thought it was... Well, I hope you enjoy it!

Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, or any of the other characters from the Sonic games or Sonic X. They are owned by Sonic Team.

**--A Helping Hand--**

"Timothy Parker!" a voice boomed at the same time as Tim heard a crash. He jumped up, opening his eyes. The whole class stared at him, and Dr. Eggman stood in front of his desk, ruler in hand. Some people in the class giggled as Tim looked around, surprised.

"Do you think this is nap time?" Dr. Eggman demanded.

"N-no, Sir!"

"Then why were you sleeping? Is it that boring? Do you think you're too smart for this? Well then, why don't you go to the front of the class and show us how to work problem thirty-six?"

Tim stood up, knowing better than to argue. His face was completely red in the embarrassment as he started walking behind Eggman. He felt a paper brush his hand and he grabbed it and his notebook from his desk. He put the paper on the notebook like it belonged to with a small "thank you" grin to Miles, the person that the paper belonged to. Miles didn't dare look so that Tim wouldn't get caught, but he knew how grateful Tim was.

Tim trudged up to the front and started writing the problem on the board. He took his time about it, which infuriated Eggman. When he was done, he stood back and let the teacher check his work. Eggman cringed, seeing that he had done everything correctly.

"Tell the class how you got to this answer," Eggman instructed.

_Oh great,_ Tim thought, not knowing how to do it. He stared at it. _Okay, has Miles gone over a problem likes this with me...? What did he even _do_? Hmm..._ "Well, I..." Timothy took each number apart and searched in the depths of his brain for reasons when the doctor asked. It was absolutely the worst explanation _ever_, but Miles noted that he at least got the major points mostly correct.

"Miles Prower," Dr. Eggman called.

"Y-yes?" Miles answered as he stood up, as was required.

"Next time you try to help Mr. Parker with a problem, make sure he understands before moving on."

"Y-yes, Sir." Miles sunk down in his seat, glad that Dr. Eggman hadn't found his paper.

"And Timothy Parker, you still get a detention for sleeping in class." Eggman walked over to his desk, where he wrote up a detention slip. He handed it to Tim. "I'm sure you know what to do with this by now." Tim blushed wildly as students laughed. He hurried back to his seat and plopped into his chair. Dr. Eggman continued his lecture.

Tim didn't give Miles' paper back until after Eggman had turned around. Miles took it and looked down to find where he left off on notes. At the top, he noticed something written in Tim's handwriting: "Thank you! You're a lifesaver!" Miles smiled and glanced over at his best friend, who also smiled. Miles gave him a thumbs-up before turning to continue writing his notes.

Tim watched what the teacher did and also started taking notes, but he felt very tired. _Maybe I did a little too much yesterday... I still hurt from hitting those walls._ He thought about his little adventure as Sonic the Hedgehog the other day and smiled to himself. _That _was_ rather fun, though. As long as I don't run into any more walls..._ He cringed as he remembered that after the battle, he decided to try running to the train station his friends were waiting at; however, he couldn't keep up with anything while running at such a high speed and kept running into buildings. By the time he found him, he felt like one huge bruise. And then he had to make up a lie to them.

Luckily for him, lying wasn't too hard thanks to the events that even they had heard about by then. He just told them the trains were shut down when things became dangerous and he had to get to safety. He ended up entering a different train station and getting off at one of its stops. They easily believed it—they were more interested in the rumor of the fast blue hedgehog.

_I should tell them about that... especially Miles and Hiei... I just hope they don't laugh at me. I don't even know how I'd show them if they didn't believe me. What am I saying? They _won't_ believe me. Only an idiot or a crazy person would believe that I turned into a big blue hedgehog, and they're both smart. But... I'll try._

----

"I saw a picture of the blue hedgehog on TV this morning!" Emily told everyone excitedly. "I so want to meet him! He must be so cool! He saved a bunch of people, they say."

"I say we've found ourselves an adventure!" Alice declared.

"We have...?" Tim asked, worried.

"Yes. We're going to find that blue hedgehog and meet him."

"We are?" Tim demanded, astonished.

"That's a great idea!" Sam agreed.

"I don't know about that," Miles spoke up.

"Why not? I wanna meet it!" Emily yelled.

_I'm _definitely_ not telling Emily. She would go crazy,_ thought Tim. _Well, crazier than she already is._

"But they said that the blue hedgehog is really fast, so couldn't he easily run past without us seeing him? And we wouldn't be able to catch up," Miles pointed out.

"So? We can think of something! Maybe he'll stop for us."

"Plus, I heard he's clumsy," Sam added.

"What?"

Sam continued, ignoring Tim's outburst, "Many people saw it running into walls. We could just wait near a wall and wave and it'd probably have to stop."

_Ouch. Gee, _thanks_. So kind, aren't ya?_ Tim thought dryly. _Running into walls at that speed _hurts_, you know._

"Why should we trust a clumsy hedgehog to do anything? He'd probably mess things up more than help," Hiei said.

"But he saved a bunch of people."

"It was probably a fluke. Who needs a hero like that? Why do we even _need_ 'heroes'? We can fight; we have two hands and two feet like that hedgehog. We're probably a lot smarter than it. We can take trouble into our own hands. There's no need for that hedgehog to do anything."

Tim stared at his brother. _Is that what you think? That I'm... useless?_

"But it's a _hedgehog_! And it saved people! Wouldn't it be cool to talk to a hedgehog?"

Hiei didn't answer. Tim sighed. _He might criticize me if I tell him the truth... I don't want that..._

"Did you hear?" Henry yelled across the field as he ran up to his group. "A huge blue hedgehog saved people from our teacher! Isn't that so cool?"

"...That's the _craziest_ thing I've ever heard," Kevin answered. Tim listened in to their conversation from where he sat under the trees.

"But it's true!" John said. "A hedgehog dropped from the sky and destroyed a bunch of evil robots!"

"First you say there's a floating island and now this? Do you make these things up?"

_Ha! I've finally uped Kevin so much that he can't believe it!_ Tim thought viciously._ I'd _love_ to see his face if he knew it was me saving people and running faster than he could ever dream of!_

"They say he's a fast hedgehog."

"But I heard he runs into walls a lot," Ruby spoke up.

_Don't tell that idiot about that!_

"It sounds more like a clumsy animal," Kevin said.

"Besides... Weren't you curious about the floating island yesterday?"

"No I wasn't!"

"Yeah you were."

_Aww, they're talking about boring stuff now. But still, once I get better at this hedgehog stuff, I'll be so far ahead of Kevin in _everything_ that he'll be begging me to stop! But hedgehogs don't stop! I've beaten him!_ Tim laughed manically at his victory.

"Uhh... Tim? Are you okay?" Miles asked.

"Yep! I'm perfectly fine! Excellent! Superb! Fabulous!"

"He's thinking about something..." Alice whispered to Sam.

"Yeah, I think that's a sign that we should run while we can," Sam whispered back. Emily, who was listening, laughed. None of the boys seemed to notice.

----

"All right, class... pull out your chemistry books and turn to page 243. We're going to work on balancing equations."

Most of the class groaned as they pulled out their books.

"Huh? Geez, Miles, what do you have _in_ that thing?" Tim asked as he noticed how big Miles' school bag was. "A dictionary?"

"No," Miles said as he zipped it open. "I like reading."

"...How many books do you need to read? Isn't one enough until you finish it?" Tim stared at the bag. "Shouldn't your bag be a little more square? It looks very round."

Miles thought quickly. "I also have something in here that I bought for my sister this morning."

"Ooh, you mean like a doll? She'll love that! Oh yeah! Speaking about your sister, what happened yesterday?"

"I'll tell you later," Miles said as he opened his bag and started searching for his chemistry book. The book floated up above the rest, ready for Miles to take. Miles panicked and grabbed the book quickly. He threw it on his desk and pulled his bag in his lap, where he rummaged through it, a scared look on his face.

"Something wrong?" Tim asked; he hadn't noticed the rising book.

"N-nope! There's nothing wrong at all!" Miles assured his friend as he hastily pulled his bag against himself, nervous. He squeezed the bag tightly so that no one could see in. He heard something give a small scream, so he squeezed tighter.

"O-okay..." Tim continued pulling his book out, put it on the desk, and started turning to the appropriate page.

Miles breathed easily and opened the bag. He peered inside to see Cheese lying there with swirling eyes. "Chhaaaoooo..."

"What was _that_ noise?" Tim asked, looking over.

"Nothing! Nothing at all!" Miles squeezed his bag shut again.

"Why are you talking, Miles Prower?" Dr. Eggman demanded. "And why isn't your book open yet?"

"S-sorry, Sir!" Miles opened his book without taking his bag out of his lap, all eyes on him. When no one was looking anymore, Miles peeked in the bag again. Cheese sat there cutely with its hand pressed against its mouth to show it knew how to be quiet. Its eyes looked almost sad as it stared up at Miles—Cheese knew that it had done something wrong. Miles smiled at the cuteness of the picture, fighting not to make any noise. He reached in and patted the chao on the head reassuringly before finally setting the bag down gently.

----

"Hey, Hiei, I'll be home later. I want to go explore the forest some more," Tim called to his brother after school.

"All right. I'll let the parents know."

"Thanks! See ya!" He waved and ran off.

Emily walked off and noticed Tim running out of the school grounds. "Where's Tim going?" Hiei walked away without answering. Anger rose up in the girl. She ran in the direction Tim went. "Come back here, Tim!" she yelled. "No fair leaving before I get to talk to you!"

Alice held up a camera. "Should we chase them? It's usually entertaining."

Sam laughed. "Not today, I don't feel like running. Hey, Miles! Where are you going? Wait up!" Miles waited for the two girls to catch up. "Since the others ran off, the three of us should do something that they'll be jealous of."

"Like finding the hedgehog?" Alice asked.

"Ah! Yes, that would be so much fun!"

"I'm sorry," Miles said, "but I have something I have to do today. You two have fun."

"Aww, okay. You're too young to be so busy, you know. Well, good luck on whatever it is."

"Thanks. See you tomorrow!"

"Bye!"

"See you!"

Miles walked through the city alone until he reached an elementary school. He stood by the gate and took a look around. He found an alleyway next to the elementary school and ran down it. He set his bag down and glanced around to make sure there were no people. He then unzipped the bag.

"Are you okay, Cheese?"

"Chao chao..." Cheese slowly flew out. Once outside of the bag, it stretched its arms, legs, and wings, extremely glad to be in open air again.

"Sorry about that. You can stay at home or in the workshop tomorrow."

"Chao!" Cheese agreed.

A bell rung nearby. "Looks like they're getting out of school now. Wait here, I'll go get Millie." Miles ran off, towards the school, not stopping until he was at the gate again. Kids his age and younger walked out of the school, talking to their friends. Millie ran up to him.

"I'm ready!" she said cheerfully. "How was Cheese?"

"Good, but I think it's hungry... We'll stop and get something to eat on the way."

"Can we have ice cream?"

"I think we should save that until after we're finished."

"Okay! Where's Cheese?"

"This way," Miles instructed as he turned and walked towards the alleyway. The two ran in and over to Cheese and Miles' bag.

"Hello, Cheese!" Millie greeted happily.

"Chao chao!" Cheese cheered as it hugged Millie. Millie giggled.

"Sorry you couldn't come with me..."

"I think acting as a doll would've been more work than sitting in a backpack," Miles said.

"Chao..." Poor Cheese didn't even want to _imagine_ acting like a doll all day.

"If we move your stuff into my bag, then Cheese could sit in your backpack..." Miles suggested. "That'd probably be more comfortable."

"Won't your bag be heavy?"

"No heavier than it's been all day. While I do this, you want to go buy us some hotdogs or something, Millie? Here's the money."

"Okay. What about Cheese?" Millie asked as she took the money.

"I'm afraid it can't go with you for this..." Miles muttered as he started working on the bags.

"Come on, Cheese!"

"Millie, I just said—AH!" Miles panicked as his sister and Cheese walked off. "Millie, wait! You can't—" He stared back and forth between the bags and the street, not knowing what to do.

"Is that a... a rabbit? It's huge!" he heard someone say. Miles held his head—it was too late now.

----

Tim walked in the woods until he found a nice clearing. "This should be good... Now, how do I turn into a hedgehog...?" He closed his eyes and tried to imagine the image in the mirror again. When he opened his eyes, he found himself closer to the ground. "This is going to be hard to get used to..."

Sonic the Hedgehog glanced around, wondering what to do first. The voices of his friends and foes rang in his head: _"I heard the hedgehog was clumsy." "Why should we trust a clumsy hedgehog?"_

"I'll show them who's clumsy..." Sonic muttered, annoyed, as he started running. _I just have to get used to running fast..._ he thought as he ran faster and faster, dodging trees. _I'm getting better..._ He noticed a tree dead ahead of him, but it was too late—he ran straight into it. "Oww... Okay, so scratch that..."

A boy laughed. Sonic looked around, surprised, trying to find the person. He found the boy sitting in the tree Sonic had run into. It was the boy wearing the red cloak, the one Sonic saw when he became a hedgehog in the darkness.

"Who are you? And what are you laughing at?"

"If you want to get better, then just let go—open yourself to the past, not the present," the boy said, answering neither of Sonic's questions.

"What are you talking about? I wasn't a hedgehog in the past, you know."

"Maybe not in this life, but you were never a human in the life before."

"What? Life before? Hey wait, you never answered my original questions."

"I can't tell you who I am yet, but try to tap in to your past life and you can become a hero again."

"And just how am I supposed to do that?" Sonic asked with his eyes closed. When he looked again, the person was gone. "Well that's just great. _Thanks_, buddy. Glad you could stick around and explain things to me." There was no answer. Sonic scowled and glanced around the forest again. _What did he mean by that? Past life? And why can't he tell me who he is?_

Sonic attempted to practice running fast again while trying to think about what the boy told him. He soon found that thinking while running was _not_ a good idea, and neither was practicing in a forest. He limped out of the forest at sunset, deciding to try on the hill next time. He drowsily stared up at the train station only to watch a train leave. _Just my luck..._ he thought. Since he had time, he inspected the surrounding area again.

Water sat just to his left, and a huge cliff rose up around the waterfall. On the opposite side of the water, the entrance of a cave was dug into the stone. _I haven't been there yet... Maybe I could practice in there._ He then realized that he wouldn't have as much room and would run into the walls. _Maaayyybe not. I'll just explore in there._ He looked to the hill next. It was more of half a climbable hill and half a steep cliff, depending on where one wanted to climb. Smoke came out of the roof of the house on it.

_So someone still lives there? I wonder who..._ Sonic leisurely climbed up the hill. At the top, he trudged over to the house, where he knocked on the door. Right about then, he didn't care if he was a hedgehog or a human—he was too tired to care. He waited, but no one answered. He tried again. Still no answer. Sonic thought about leaving, but curiosity kicked in. He reached for the doorknob and slowly turned it. He slowly eased the door open and peered in.

The inside was a mess—tools and metal laid everywhere. Papers with plans on them, mainly plans of planes, were scattered across the tables and floor. One bite of a hotdog was left on a plate that sat on a far table. "They had... hotdogs without me?" he said, suddenly feeling the need for a chilidog. He then wondered who lived here. "Hello? Is anyone there?" he called in. He waited, but no answer came. The next thing he heard was the horn of the train warning people that it was about to leave.

"Oh no!" Sonic ran quickly out of the workshop, leaving the door partially opened. He ran up the stairs to catch the train. Just below the boarding platform, he changed back into Timothy and ran onto the train as a human. There, he plopped into a seat and breathed easily again. He rested in that seat until the train reached his stop, where he fought to stand up and stumble off of the train. He felt utterly exhausted from his training run. He trudged through the city as the sky turned dark and the buildings lit up.

"What's that?"

"Another robot?"

Tim turned curiously to see what the people were talking about. They stared up towards the sky, so Tim followed their gaze. In the sky, above the lights of the buildings, shone a huge silver robot. It had wide metal wings and two grappler hands. Next to it floated something much smaller—Tim recognized it as the hover machine that Dr. Eggman had sat in the other day. "He's doing this again today? I seriously have the worst teacher _ever_!" Tim said to himself. "Couldn't he at least wait until I've gotten this whole hedgehog thing down?"

"Look, Alice! It's a robot! I wonder if that hedgehog will come save the day again!" Sam said. Neither she nor Alice noticed Tim. Alice held up a camera.

"I hope so. Now I'll be able to catch it on camera."

_Wow, my own friends are my biggest fans! Cool! And maybe this time I can be even more awesome! Then that stupid Kevin will be looking up to me..._ With a grin on his face, Tim ran to the nearest tall building. He ran around it, turning into Sonic as he did so, until he found the emergency stairs on the outside. He jogged up the stairs, not wanting to go too fast and fall off.

On top of the building, Sonic could survey the situation better. The huge flying robot looked sort of like a manta ray, its tail a jet. It had four holes on the front for missiles and turrets on the bottom of it. _It doesn't seem to be protected on top... Well, that was nice of Dr. Eggman, at least._

Helicopters and floated all around shooting at the thing. Its armor easily deflected the bullets and it shot back. It used its left arm to grab one helicopter and slam it into another. Policemen were jumping out quickly, parachutes on. Soon there were none left.

"Guess it's my turn!" Sonic ran across the roof at a slow speed and jumped to the next roof. He moved around to get as close as he could to the back of it, where the jet was. When he was on the closest roof, he ran and jumped onto its top. Dr. Eggman turned with a jolt, surprised to hear something hitting the metal of his machine. "Hello, Doctor."

"So, the hedgehog's back."

"I have a name, you know."

"You won't _need_ a name when I'm through with you."

"That was so lame. Honestly, don't you old people know how to—whoa!" The machine jolted and moved around to try to knock Sonic off. He grabbed on to a small spike in the middle of the top. "Hey! Don't do that while I'm talking!"

The robot didn't listen—its hands reached around to try to grab Sonic. He jumped out of the way and landed on the head of the robot. The hands tried again, but he simply jumped to the other side. The robot kept trying, but it moved too slow for even the clumsy Sonic. Even when it used one hand at a time, Sonic used its wide wingspan to dodge. Sonic stood on the head again, waiting.

"Come on, can't you do _anything_? This is boring!"

It threw its right arm at Sonic, but he jumped to the left wing. As his foot hit, the robot swiftly titled, making Sonic lose his footing. He found himself falling.

"Goodbye, hedgehog!" Dr. Eggman yelled after him.

Sonic fell backwards, throwing his arms up in hopes of grabbing the machine. Just when he thought he had it, he fell out of reach. The sound of Eggman's laughter filled Sonic's ears. _Great. I finally get an adventure, and I'm going to die. Already. What were those people talking about? How am I supposed to do anything like this?_ A new sound met his ears—the sound of a motor and someone yelling "Sonic." _Now I'm even hearing things..._ He kept falling into the coldness of the city, the lights from the buildings blinding him.

Suddenly Sonic felt wind rush past him as something huge blocked the city lights. Unexpected warmth surrounded his wrist in the cold night wind, pulling it. His arm strained and pulled his body until he wasn't falling anymore. The sound of a plane rung in his ears as he tried to comprehend what was going on. Sonic slowly looked up.

The first thing he saw was a blue airplane. The wings in the front were both above and below the engine, with a blue bar connecting them on the edge. The small edges of the wings furthest away from the engine were painted red, and Sonic could see a yellow stripe poking in from the front of the wings. His eyes hit the body next. The motor on the front spun in a black blur. A yellow stripe started mid-way down the body on the front and continued all the way to the end. In front of the tail, the word "Sonic" was written in white above the yellow stripe, underlined in red. The tiny tail wings were much like the front wings, only the yellow stripe on them was in the back. Above that, the tail of the plane pointed upwards. On it was a picture of two foxtails.

Sonic then found what was holding him to the plane—a white-gloved hand was wrapped around his wrist. He followed the cream colored arm until he found the person it belonged to. A girl rabbit leaned over the plane, her long ears blowing rapidly in the wind. Her brown eyes squinted in the strain of the wind and holding on to Sonic, and her other hand was clamped to the plane. She was mostly cream colored. She had a huge orange spot around each eye, covering mainly the outside of her face. Another orange spot started on top of her head and retreated past what Sonic could see. Her ears faded from cream to orange about halfway down. An odd-looking blue and yellow creature clung to her shoulder. She wore an orange dress with a white collar. The blue ribbon tied around the collar also flapped viciously in the air. In a sweet child's voice, she asked, "Are you okay, Mr. Sonic?"

The one piloting the plane was not human, either. He was a young fox who was orangeish-yellow in color. Instead of just one fox tail, he had two, reminding Sonic of the legends about nine-tailed kitsunes. The wind blew his ears and fur back. He gripped the controls tightly with two gloved hands as he turned his head. He made sure that Sonic was there through two blue eyes. The fox smiled kindly at the new passenger before turning back to control the plane. "Hold on tight!" he instructed. The rabbit's grip tightened around Sonic's wrist in response.

The fox moved his controls around and the airplane changed its course. It climbed steeply between the buildings until it finally emerged above them. It then made a tight U-turn to face the manta ray robot and its creator.

"Mr. Sonic, come up, quickly!" the rabbit begged as she attempted to pull. Sonic grabbed on to the metal of the plane and pushed himself up until he could lay across it, behind the seats.

"Thank you," Sonic said. _I'm amazed. I didn't expect there to be _more_! And how do these two—no, three—know me when I have no clue who they are? And why is my name on the side of this plane?_

The sound of gun blast filled his ears. He stared to the front of the plane to see bullets shooting at the metal manta ray.

The rabbit turned her head to see Sonic again, her seatbelt now on and the blue creature secure in her lap. "You should probably hold on to something, Mr. Sonic."

"Huh?"

The robot shot back and the fox quickly tilted the plane to the right to dodge the bullets. This sudden movement caused Sonic to flip off of the back, headfirst. He threw his hand up and caught his fingers in between two pieces of metal. He hung there a minute, staring under the plane, before trying to climb back up. As he attempted to reach the top again, the plane jerked around in a random matter, often making Sonic lose his grip. When Sonic was almost back to the top of the plane, it suddenly dove down, throwing Sonic into the back right tail wing. The plane then jolted up again, and Sonic fought to hold on to the tail wing. _This isn't Sonic pinball, you know!_ he thought, tired of being thrown around. Through the sound of rushing wind, he heard explosions; he didn't dare look up, though, until his grip was firm.

He finally looked, his image upside-down: the fox had destroyed one arm and many of the turrets underneath the manta ray robot. As he moved to the left to dodge the bullets, the other arm punched at the plane. The plane moved up and spun around the arm in a barrel roll—Sonic was so glad he finally had a good grip on the plane.

"Sonic!" the fox called back. "You're going to have to destroy it—the armor's too strong for my missiles!"

"What? Me?"

"I'll distract its arm while you spin through it."

"Then you're going to have to give me a minute..."

"Get on the right wing."

Sonic climbed on to the main body of the plane, where he held on tightly as the plane moved around he slowly pulled himself forwards. Noticing his troubles, the rabbit and blue creature each grabbed and arm and helped pull him forward. Feeling more confident with their help, he moved faster and didn't hold on as tightly. He kept slipping, but not as much as he thought; he realized that the fox was trying to keep the plane steady for him. Sonic slowly picked himself up a little behind Cream's seat. He wasn't quite standing—he still held on to the seat, but he only needed to let go and straighten his knees to stand. "Tell me when you're going to stay straight for a minute."

"All right... turning," the fox announced before he made another U-turn. Sonic gripped the plane harder, falling a little. When he got his balance, he moved back into position.

"Now, hurry!" the fox urged as he straightened out the plane. Sonic nodded and stood up. He jumped through the air and onto the right wing, where he immediately lowered himself and held on tightly again.

"I'm in position."

"Right." The plane passed by the machine again and kept going until the fox judged it was time to turn around. They headed straight for the robot. The plane turned and started going left around it. As he got closer, the fox slowly started turning the plane downwards and making a wide circle around it. "Whenever you're ready, Sonic!"

Sonic watched as they slowly circled down closer and closer to the robot. He found a roof close by that he could land on and waited until the plane was opposite of that roof. He then jumped off of the plane and started spinning.

Behind him, the plane dove down, where it quickly flipped around and shot at the mechanical hand. The hand tried to grab the plane, annoyed by it, unaware of the approaching hedgehog. The hand scratched the wing, knocking the airplane off balance right before the spinning hedgehog hit. Sonic dove through the inside of the thing, breaking any machinery in his way, until he emerged out the other side. Noticing Sonic, the fox quickly pulled the plane away from the manta ray robot. Sonic uncurled and landed safely on the roof as the plane pulled up. The robot exploded. Sonic watched the fireworks from below while the fox, the rabbit, and the blue creature watched from above. When it cleared out, Sonic held a thumbs-up to his new allies, and the fox held one up in return.

"No!" Dr. Eggman yelled as he floated over.

"So _there's_ the scaredy-cat," taunted Sonic.

"How dare you? How did you destroy that robot?" He then looked up. "And where did you two come from?"

"Hey guys, what'd'ya say we give the ugly doctor the same treatment?" Sonic called up.

"Why you... You're becoming quite the _pest_. You won't live through our next meeting!" He then flew off.

The fox turned the plane around and flew it next to the roof Sonic stood on. "Hop on!" Sonic did and held on tightly to the left wing—he learned his lesson earlier. They soared through the air, towards the forest Sonic had trained at earlier that day.

----

"I'm exhausted," Sonic complained. He, the rabbit, and the blue creature now sat at a table while the fox worked on the airplane's wing. They were in the house on the hill, the very one that Sonic had peeked in not too long ago. "Who are you guys, anyway? And how do you know my name?"

"I'm Cream the Rabbit, and this is my very best friend, Cheese!"

"What is it?" Sonic asked, staring at the blue creature.

"It's called a 'Chao', we believe," the fox answered. "My name's Tails."

"Fitting. I guess that's your plane?"

"It doesn't just belong to me. This is the Tornado II. I made it a long time ago as a newer version of your airplane, the Tornado."

_A long time ago? This kid _can't_ be older than ten or eleven! And..._ "Wait, what are you talking about? I've never _had_ an airplane!"

"I don't really remember much, either," Tails said. "You had it in a past life—the boy in red explained it to me. We're reincarnations of heroes."

"Whoa, what? The red boy never said anything about that! ...Hey, you've met those cloaked people too, right? Do you know who they are?"

"No clue."

"He said that Mr. Sonic and Mr. Tails were best friends back then."

"Really?" Sonic asked, staring at the fox. He smiled. "Well, we'll be friends in this life, too, right?"

The fox smiled happily. "Of course!"

Sonic held a thumbs-up. "So are there any other—" Something suddenly occurred to him. A look of dread spread through his face. "Oh no!"

"What's wrong?"

"My family! They're going to kill me for being out so late!" Sonic ran to the door. "Sorry to leave like this, can we talk more tomorrow?"

"Wait!" Tails ran to a table, where he grabbed a watched. He tossed it to Sonic. "Take that."

"What is it?"

"It looks like a normal watch, but the buttons don't change the time—they allow you to communicate with us. Press the yellow one to get in touch with me and the cream one to talk to Cream."

"Got it! See ya!"

"Bye, Sonic!"

"Good-bye, Mr. Sonic!"

"Chao!"

----

Tim felt extremely worn out the next morning. His friends gathered around and talked before school, but he didn't pay any attention to them until Sam slapped her hands on his desk, _hard_. "_We_ have something to show all of you!" she boasted happily.

"Not now, I'm tired..." Tim muttered.

"Come on! This is more important! We caught the hedgehog on tape!"

"What?"

"Really?" Emily sounded ecstatic.

"That's not important..." Hiei muttered.

"_And_ there seem to be more! Watch!"

Alice sat the camera down on Tim's desk, where everyone (including the curious Hiei) crowded around.

The image on the camera was small and far away, but Alice soon zoomed in as much as she could. It showed Sonic being thrown all around on the plane, unable to keep his balance.

_Why did you record _that Tim wondered, embarrassed.

_Oops, I guess I should've made sure he was secure first,_ Miles thought, since he was really Tails. He felt bad for throwing Sonic around so much.

"Wow! That's so cool! Can you record me a copy? I'd love to see this all the time!" Emily spoke up.

"Sure thing," Alice agreed.

"I'd like one, too," Hiei said.

"Really?" Tim was happy to hear this. _Is he starting to take an interest in this?_

"Yes. It's funny watching him be thrown around like a ping-pong ball," Hiei answered. Everyone paused, not sure if he was joking or serious. When Tim realized that Hiei was serious, he exploded.

"WHAT? _That is not funny!_"

"Of course it is. I wish it was closer so I could see his face."

"Brother! Think about that! That has to hurt! A lot!"

"He seems to be taking it quite well."

"He's almost falling!"

----

Yeah... that one was long... I hope you're still here. o.o'' Well, I'll put chapter three up either after some reviews or... when I get bored again. XD' Please review, it would make me feel better.

Good luck!

Sonic Triple Kingdom

-Ayame


	3. The Protectors of the Emerald

Wee, chapter three! And, if you haven't guessed, character three!

Oh yes, something I forgot to mention on chapter one (since I didn't have enough room in the description...), there very well could be other couples besides Knuckles and Rouge... they're just the only definite ones.

Well, I hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, or any other characters from the games or Sonic X. I do not own Angel Island or the Master Emerald or other places/objects from the Sonic games or Sonic X, either. o.o' Also, there is no offense meant with the history question, it's just something that's studied in history. I don't think anything will be wrong with it, but I just want to make sure... o.o''

**--The Protectors of the Emerald--**

"I wish you could see this, honey," the pilot of a passenger airplane spoke on his phone. "The ocean looks so beautiful with the cloud cover. Hold on, we're approaching more clouds. I need to pilot." He slowly moved the plane through the thick clouds, a little worried—not being able to see was not good, especially since the news reports of a floating island. Of course, he didn't believe there _was_ a floating island, but this thick of clouds was still an ominous sign. The plane jerked a little, despite his attempts to keep it steady. He pulled up, trying to get above the clouds.

The clouds broke and released the plane back into normal air. Below the airplane was an island that did not touch the water. Forests and streams covered it. A huge mountain poked up through the forests. A few clouds floated above the wild landscape, adding to the beauty. "Oh... my..."

The pilot quickly pulled the microphone to talk to the passengers towards him. "If you'll look out your windows, you will now see that we are above a floating island." He threw the microphone away from him and called out to the other members of the staff, "Someone, get a camera!" He turned his cell phone off of mute and said, "You're never going to believe this. We're actually going over the floating island. I'll try to get many pictures for you—Where's the camera, people? Yes, you'll definitely be able to see it soon. You'll ride the next plane goin—Hey, who are you? You can't come up here!"

Two passengers stood there. The tallest one was a boy with long, red hair tied in a ponytail. His purple eyes stared out the window. He wore a red T-shirt, cargos, and tennis shoes. The girl next to him had light orange hair and blue eyes. She wore a white tank top and a long, green skirt. Her white sandals wrapped around her whole foot. She bent down and tied part of the skirt around one leg, and then the other with a string. Both of the teenagers wore backpacks.

"Go back to your seats! H-hey!"

The boy opened the door to the airplane. Wind rushed in his face, making his hair fly and clothes rustle. The girl stood behind him, trying to keep her hair out of her face.

"Get away from there! It's dangerous!" the pilot yelled, standing.

The girl turned to him. "We'll be gone in a minute, Sir. We're sorry to trouble you." She bowed lightly to him.

"There's definitely something there..." the boy said, staring down at the floating island. "Ready, Karen?"

"...Yes."

The boy flung himself out of the door, causing the pilot to freak out. He yelled as loud as he could for help and grabbed the girl's arm. The girl waited, giving the boy enough time to fall out of her way. She then gently pushed the pilot away and pulled her arm free. She jumped out of the plane.

"No!" The pilot stared down, holding on to the door. The boy and the girl fell below him and the plane, their arms and legs spread out. The boy pulled a string on his backpack first, unleashing a parachute into the air. The girl then did the same. The two floated safely down until they landed on the grass of the island. They stood up and took the backpacks off, surveying the land as they did so.  
They landed in the clearing of a forest. Small animals scurried around and birds sung happily. Many of the animals watched curiously, having no idea what these visitors were. Rocks of all different sizes lied on the ground. The girl, Karen, untied her skirt while the boy started walking, his destination set. Karen then ran to catch up with him.

"Do you feel something different here, too, Kevin?"

"More than that. I've felt it since long before the pilot announced us being here," Kevin answered.

"What?"

"There's something ahead of us... something _powerful_. I can feel it."

"I can feel something, too, but not very well. What do you think it is?"

"I don't know... but I know it's not harmful," Kevin assured the girl. "It's up there." He pointed at a stone monument that they could now see over the trees. They kept walking through the forest in silence until they reached it.

The shrine was broken. It had fallen apart from years upon years of standing in that same place. Only the main body was left completely standing, and even that looked crumbled. The main body rose up, getting smaller and smaller as it went to the top. A set of stairs climbed the whole thing. Pillars of different sizes stood on the stone platform and all around it in many circles. Some pillars had completely fallen to the ground. Animals made homes of the pillars on the ground, but none seemed to go up the main body of the shrine.

Karen stared in awe. "This place... its beautiful. It must've once been the glory of a nation."

Kevin didn't say anything. He slowly started walking up the stairs. _Something... something's up there..._

"Brother, wait up!" Karen called when she noticed that he was climbing the stairs. She also started climbing it.

He stood at the top and stared at it, the thing he had felt. It was a humongous green emerald. It shined brightly on the shrine, and it seemed to shine brighter and brighter as Kevin approached it. As his sister reached the top of the stairs, he slowly lifted his hands and reached for the emerald. He grabbed the lovely thing with both of his hands at the same time, and a blinding white light engulfed him.

"Kevin?" Karen hid her eyes so as not to be blinded, but she was very worried. "Kevin!"

The light died down and Karen slowly opened her eyes again.

"The Master Emerald, huh?" she heard her brother's voice say. She turned to see him, glad to hear him okay. However, her brother was nowhere in sight. A red echidna stood in front of the emerald, one hand on it. His spikes hung down in dreadlocks and a curved white mark was on his chest, looking almost like a necklace. He wore huge white gloves with two spikes on each glove. His shoes were red with a yellow stripe across them. On top of the shoes was a huge silver buckle. The socks he wore were green. His tail zigzagged out. He stared at the emerald with a smile on his face and pride in his purple eyes.

"W-who are you?" Karen demanded. "And where's Kevin?"

The red echidna turned around and stared at the girl, not knowing what to say.

_Those eyes... those purple eyes... those are Kevin's eyes..._

"Wh... _what happened to my brother?_"

----

At the end of the Language Arts class, everyone received the scores on their tests from the day before. All of the students conversed with their friends over how they did while waiting for the next class to start.

"You always get a one hundred!" Tim said after he saw Miles' paper.

"It was a good book, so I remembered everything."

"Good? More like boring!"

"And what'd Sir Sleeps-a-lot get?" Kevin taunted, leaning back in his chair. To both his and Tim's dismay, Kevin had been sat one in front of Tim at the beginning of the year. Tim glared at his enemy.

"Read it and weep!" Tim boasted, handing his paper over. Kevin took it and stared for a few minutes without a word. Tim smirked. _Ha, I finally got him!_ he thought.

"...You call that good?" Kevin finally asked.

"What do you mean? Of _course_ that's good! These tests are hard!"

"Not if you read the book."

"I did read it!"

"What'd you get?" Emily asked Tim curiously. She sat to his right.

"An eighty-two!" Tim boasted. "I bet Kevin got lower than that, he just doesn't want to admit it!"

"Oh really?" Kevin held up his own paper. On it was an eight-five. Tim stopped everything, not believing that Kevin beat him again. Tim's anger rose.

"All right! We'll settle this next period!"

Ruby curiously looked over at Tim's paper before Kevin tossed it back. She sat just to Kevin's right, in front of Emily. She then sat back in her chair, happy.

"What did you get, Ruby?" Kevin asked.

"An eight-five."

"Wow, you got the same thing as me!"

"Yes, ironic, isn't it?" she asked, not sounded surprised at all.

"Good job," Kevin congratulated sincerely. _She must've liked that book... she usually doesn't do that well. That's good... Hopefully she'll continue doing this well._

"Thank you..." _...for not covering your answers,_ Ruby thought deceitfully.

The bell rung for the next period to start. Dr. Eggman called for everyone to get in his or her seats as he stood up at the front. Tim glared at the back of Kevin's head. _All right... I _will_ beat him!_

"You have a test tomorrow, so let's see how well you know the material... I'll go around and ask each of you a question. If someone gets it wrong, someone else can answer," Eggman announced. Tim and Kevin simultaneously pulled out a sheet of paper each—they each had to keep tally of who answered more questions correctly.

"Question one, Miss Sarel. What compromise brought in California as a free state, but allowed Utah and New Mexico to decide their status through popular sovereignty?"

"The..." she thought, stumped. "That's not the Missouri Compromise, is it...?"

"No. Next."

Miles raised his hand, but not _nearly_ as fast as Tim's and Kevin's hands shot up.

"Mr. Parker."

Tim grinned, happy to have beaten Kevin. "The Compromise of 1750!"

"No. Next."

Tim's surprise was huge as some people laughed. Kevin's hand was the first up this time.

Kevin turned around in his chair _just_ to rub his answer in Tim's face. "The Compromise of _18_50."

"Correct, Mr. Hogosha."

Tim glared angrily as Dr. Eggman asked the next question. Every time someone got an answer wrong, Tim and Kevin raced to get their hands up first, whether they knew the answer or not.

"They're at it again..." Sam whispered to Alice from her seat behind Miles. "Who's winning so far?"

"Kevin won in Language Arts, and he's winning so far here."

"Tim better pick up the pace soon..."

The end of the History class gave Kevin another win. Like always, neither had lied on the tally, but they always had to make sure of the other one.

"All right!" Tim yelled. "Next is P.E.! You're not winning in there!" _Especially since it's running day!_

"Isn't that what you said about History?" Kevin taunted. Sparks flew as the two glared at each other; the people in both of their groups knew better than to try talking to them today. When the bell run, they walked out to the gym without a word to anyone and changed into their P.E. clothes quickly. They were the first in the gym and they sat on opposite sides of the room, glaring. The P.E. teacher, who the students called Coach Sensei, sighed, understanding this behavior all to well. Tim and Kevin competed in P.E. more than any other class; while they tied at sports, Tim always won the runs and Kevin always won in the weight room.

"Running is supposed to be a _pace_ exercise," Coach Sensei told them, "not a race."

"We have to pace ourselves to get to the end," Tim pointed out.

"But the point of this is _not_ to be exhausted afterwards."

"As long as I beat _him_..." both of them said as they turned to glare at each other again.

Coach Sensei chuckled; there really was no reason when they were like this. "Just don't over exhaust yourselves." The other students now started coming in and picking their seats. The members of Tim's posse wished him luck just as the members of Kevin's posse told him to do his best. When it was time for class to start, Coach Sensei called them to the track.

Tim and Kevin stood next to each other on the track, preparing to run. Coach Sensei led a long warm-up stretch just for the two.

"All right, class. I want a mile _jog_. That's ten laps. Start whenever you're ready."

"Miles, count us off," Tim said.

"O-okay..." Miles hurried over and stood to Tim's left, facing them. "On your mark... Get set... GO!"

The two raced off quickly, hurrying past anyone in their way.

"Maybe I should've given them _two_ miles..." Coach Sensei complained.

"They would still wear themselves out..." Miles pointed out. Tim and Kevin then raced past, neck and neck. Miles started his jog.

_Heh heh... I'll show you, Kevin!_ Tim thought ferociously. _I'll wait until lap nine before showing you how fast hedgehogs run!_ They kept running, dodging people on their way. Lap three... four... five... six... seven... eight...

The crossed the line for lap nine at the same time—now it was time for both of them to push harder. They pulled ahead at the same interval as they turned the first corner. Sweat poured down both of their faces as they pushed themselves to the limit. As they turned the second corner, Tim pulled into the lead. His shoes changed color for a split second as he sped up on the straightaway. As Tim got further and further away, Kevin pushed himself harder to catch up. His shoes also changed color for a millisecond as he pushed. Tim turned the next corner seconds ahead of Kevin, who tried to go faster. Tim looked back on the straight path to notice Kevin slowly catching up. Tim smirked and ran just a little bit faster as he turned the last corner. He pushed himself off of the wall he almost ran into and ran for the finish.

Right after his right foot hit the other side of the finish line, he almost collapsed. His speed reduced tremendously as he spun off of the track. Kevin slowed down as he reached the finish line, knowing that it was too late anyway. He trudged over to the water fountain, where Tim was busy missing his mouth. Both of them were covered in sweat and on the verge of collapsing. They breathed heavily.

"Hurry... up..." Kevin said between breaths. "I need... water... too..."

Tim swayed. _I guess my human form's not meant to run that fast..._ he thought tiredly. _I'll leave Sonic speed to Sonic... if I can ever get that down..._ He collapsed onto the rail next to him.

"I told you not to exhaust yourself," Coach Sensei said as he extended a hand. "Need a hand?" Tim gladly took it and Coach Sensei helped him to a place to sit. He then walked over and waited for Kevin to finish his drink of water before offering the same thing. They sat there trying to catch their breath the rest of the class period without a single word.

The next period was math, where they compared warm-up answers and answers after the lecture, when Eggman gave them problems to try. Miles checked all of their answers and, to Tim's disappointment, Kevin won in math. The bell rang for lunch.

"That stupid Kevin..." Tim muttered to Miles and Hiei. The girls were still getting their lunch.

"You have to win in the next two classes to tie with him, don't you?" Hiei pointed out.

"Yes... and I _will!_ He's not beating me!" Tim declared. _And even so, I've won anyway—I can turn into a hedgehog and save people. That idiot would be bowing down before me if he knew..._

"Huh? Who's that that Kevin's talking to?" Sam asked curiously as she and Alice walked over. "I don't believe I've seen her before." The boys curiously turned to look.

Kevin was talking to a girl wearing a school uniform. She had long, light orange hair and kind blue eyes.

"She's pretty... What's she doing hanging out with an idiot like Kevin?" Tim said.

"Does Tim have a crush on Miss Mystery Girl?" Sam joked.

"Don't let Emily hear that..." Alice suggested.

"I don't have a crush on anyone! I was just saying!" Tim yelled in his defense.

"And just _what_ were you saying?" Emily's threatening voice boomed as she walked over.

"Urk!" Tim slowly turned to face her, his face pouring with sweat. "Uhh... N-nothing! Nothing at all!"

"What were you saying?" Emily demanded, not believing him.

_Think fast, Tim..._ "Well, Alice wasn't feeling good today, so I was trying to compliment her to make her feel better... and Sam decided to torment me! Yeah, that's what happened!"

"Huh? Alice, is everything okay?" Emily asked, worried.

Alice laughed lightly. "Yes. I feel better now, thank you. That was quite entertaining to watch."

_Thank you Alice!_ Tim thought happily. _I knew I could count on her to stick up for me!_ Tim quickly changed the subject.

"Hey Kevin!" Mike, a member of Kevin's group, called. Kevin waved good-bye to the girl he had been talking to and ran over to his friends. Tim listened in, curious to find out just who that girl was.

"Hey guys," Kevin greeted.

"I heard of some more weird events last night!" Henry spoke up. "Did you hear? They say that yesterday, on one of the airplanes flying across the ocean... they passed over the floating island. And that's not all! Two passengers, a boy and a girl, _jumped off of the plane_."

_What?_ Tim thought, now even more curious. _Why would anyone do that?_

"Are they okay?" John asked.

"It's said they had parachutes. And then—it gets better. They were never found after that. The pilot called the police, who went to the island on helicopters. Instead of finding the two kids, they found two _hostile_ creatures near the center of the island... creatures sorta like that Sonic the Hedgehog."

_We were _not_ hostile,_ Kevin thought angrily. _They came too close to the Master Emerald, so I made them leave._

"Whoa, really? Is that where he came from?"

"No one knows..."

"So what about the humans?"

"My guess is they died..."

"That's so creepy!"

"How'd they look?"

"Who, the creatures or the people?"

"...Both!"

"Well, the pilot said the boy had long, re—"

"Okay, that's enough of this foolishness," Kevin finally spoke up. Henry stared at his friend, now remembering the description given of the boy. "There is no floating island—the media's just trying to create stories again. You shouldn't believe them."

_Come to think of it,_ Henry thought, _the boy was described as looking much like Kevin... purple eyes and everything... But Kevin's still alive. So... did he have some twin that we didn't know about? If he did, maybe I shouldn't've brought it up!_

"Like you're one to talk," said Ruby. "You believe almost _anything_ someone says."

"I do not!"

"Yes you do," Mike joked.

_Hostile creatures that look like me...?_ Tim thought. _Now I _have_ to check this out. They'll bring me a bad reputation if I don't._

The bell rang and everyone walked to his or her next period. Tim's group and Kevin's group happened to have the same fifth period: band.

The students walked in, one by one, and got out their instruments. Tim and John were the first to sit down in the trumpet section. Kevin and Hiei set up the percussion equipment in the back while Sam hit one of the drums on her way to the tuba section. Alice separated from her best friend to sit with the rest of the clarinets, and Emily divided the three girls up even more as she took her seat in the flute section. Henry, Mike, and Paul joked with each other as they got out their instruments and sat in the low brass section; Henry sat on the edge of the trombone section, Mike played the baritone, and Paul was their only mellophone. Ruby winked at the boys as she walked up holding her saxophone. And last, but definitely not least, Miles wobbled over carrying a base clarinet.

The music teacher stood at the podium, making sure everyone was there. She was a small woman named Miss Myra. Her short, blonde hair was tired into a loose ponytail; hair hung all around her face. "Today we're doing sight-reading—"

"YES!" Tim and Kevin burst out—sight-reading was one of the best for their war.

Miss Myra sighed. "Are you two competing again?"

"Yes," the whole class chorused for them. Tim and Kevin both blushed, feeling a little embarrassed.

Miss Myra shook her head and passed out the music. She gave the students time to look at it silently before she went over a few things with them. She then conducted while they attempted to play this new song. When the song was over, she went over how the band did, and then how each section did as a whole, like she normally did. She hated going over how each section did when Tim and Kevin were competing, but it was for each section's benefit. The percussion section messed up more than the trumpet section—Tim had won in band.

"Ha! Take that, Kevin!"

"It's still three to two in my favor," Kevin pointed out.

"We'll see about that! One more period!" The two glared at each other yet again.

In the next class, Chemistry, they worked on balancing equations again. Dr. Eggman passed out sheets of paper with equations to balance and let them work on that most of the period.

_Okay, Miles reviewed this with me yesterday... Let's see... Oh yeah!_ Tim thought as he worked a problem. _If I put a two here, I have two hydrogen... no, wait, four... So then..._

At the end of the period, Miles checked both Tim's and Kevin's work again. Tim won.

The school day was over, leaving Tim and Kevin at a tie.

"Next time I _will_ beat you!"

"Yeah right, I'll be the winner next time."

----

Dr. Eggman wandered the floating island in his usual flying machine, looking for something that might help him against the annoying hedgehog. He found a huge emerald that seemed to radiate much power. "I'll just take this..." he mumbled to himself as he greedily reached his hands out.

"STOP!" a voice called from behind him. A red creature ran up the stairs and punched at the doctor, who quickly floated up and out of the way. The creature glared at him. "Don't you dare touch the Master Emerald!"

"Oh? Is it yours? And who are you?"

"I'm Knuckles the Echidna, the protector of the Master Emerald."

_Hmm... Another one of them... I wonder if I could have _him_ fight that hedgehog..._ Dr. Eggman thought. "I hear there's a hedgehog who's after this emerald."

"What?"

"He'll probably come soon, so you might want to prepare yourself," Dr. Eggman said as he turned the machine away.

"Where are you going?"

"I just came here to keep that _evil_ hedgehog from getting this lovely jewel, but since you seem to have that covered, I figured I should get out of your way."

"...Thanks for the warning," Knuckles said, making Eggman grin as he flew off. A girl watched from behind the trees, worried.

_He fell for it!_ Eggman thought. _Now all I have to do is get the hedgehog to that island... this should be easy..._ "Wait, is that...?" he noticed an airplane headed straight for him—the Tornado II. In it were Tails and Cream, and Sonic stood on the right wing. _This is even more perfect than I thought..._ Dr. Eggman schemed as he hid around the rocks below the island. _That hedgehog is headed straight for the island already! Now all I have to do is let that 'Knuckles' take care of him and then take that emerald for myself!_

The Tornado II landed near the edge of the island and its passengers got out. They stared at the wild forest, wondering what lay in it.

"Hostile, eh? We'll have to be careful. You two stay behind me," Sonic instructed as he started walking. Cream walked behind him, and Tails took up the rear to keep an eye on Cream and Cheese.

"Wait, please!" a voice rang out. The four looked around, but they only saw trees and small animals.

"Who's there?"

"You haven't... come to steal the Master Emerald... have you?"

"Master Emerald? What's that?" Sonic asked. The person could tell that he was sincere and sighed in relief.

"Then please, I'm begging you... don't go any further. You could get hurt...!"

"I know," Sonic said. "I came to investigate hostile creatures, and I'll investigate them. I can't have all these rumors going around, you know."

"He's not hostile! He's been tricked by Dr. Eggman!"

"Tricked?"

"What do you mean?"

"Please wait here. I'll go tell him the truth, but until then, you must stay safe."

"Thank you for telling us, Miss...!" Cream called out.

"Sorry, I don't like waiting," Sonic said before he ran through the forest, curious as to what she was talking about.

"Sonic!" Tails called behind him. He, Cream, and Cheese chased after Sonic.

"Oh no..." the girl muttered, even more worried.

Sonic ran until he reached a stone shrine; at the bottom of the shrine stood a red echidna. He glared at Sonic.

"So, the rumors are true," said Sonic. "There _is_ a hostile creature in these parts."

"I won't let you take the Master Emerald," Knuckles said.

"What's this Master Emer—ALD?" Sonic yelped as Knuckles attacked him quickly. Sonic jumped up, landing in a tree. Knuckles whipped around and destroyed the tree with one punch. Finding himself falling, Sonic quickly took to another tree. _This guy's dangerous!_ Sonic felt the tree he stood in moving underneath his feet. He looked down to see Knuckles picking it up. Sonic's eye widened as Knuckles threw the tree and Sonic.

He hit the ground, trapped in the trees branches. The trunk hung above him, only staying up due to a few branches holding it. Sonic heard the deafening sound of those few branches starting to crack. Sonic cursed and curled up, quickly spinning. The branches broke and the tree fell on top of the spinning hedgehog. The tree spilt in half and the halves fell on either side of Sonic. When all of the branches were finished, Sonic stopped spinning.

"Pretty good... for a hedgehog," Knuckles said as he walked up, one hand on his hip.

"And your pretty strong... Dreadlocks!" Sonic jumped out of his leafy prison and punched Knuckles quickly. Knuckles attempted to punch Sonic, but Sonic quickly moved and kicked. Knuckles blocked Sonic's foot and punched the hedgehog in the stomach, sending him back a little. The two charged, attacking each other at the same time. Their shoulders hit each other and they fell back, but they quickly regained and charged again. Knuckles punched, Sonic dodged; Sonic punched, Knuckles dodged. The battle raged on, both getting scars but neither tiring.

"Sonic!"

"Mr. Sonic!"

"Chao chao!"

"Oh no..." The girl ran for the battle. "Please, stop!"

Sonic and Knuckles continued fighting, not even hearing the others. Sonic punched Knuckles, who charged back and punched Sonic. _This guy's tough!_ Sonic thought, sweating. He was starting to wear out. _I'll have to take him out quickly..._

_He's stronger than I thought,_ went through Knuckles' head as he, too, breathed heavily and sweated. _But he won't survive this...!_

Sonic curled up and spun quickly while Knuckles prepared his strongest punch. The girl continued running, trying desperately to stop the two. Sonic charged at Knuckles, spinning.

"Stop!" the girl yelled out again as she got closer.

_That girl from before...!_

_Karen?_ Knuckles dared move his eyes to see his sister about to come between him and Sonic. "Idiot!" Knuckles jumped out of the way, pushing the girl down to the ground as he, too, hit it. Sonic spun past them before he could uncurl. He turned around to look, worried.

_Whew, looks like she's okay..._ Sonic thought as Knuckles stood up. Tails ran over to Sonic while Cream ran over to the girl.

"Miss, are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine, thank you."

"You idiot, what are you doing here? Today's my day, remember?"

"I know, but..." She looked down. She was a light orange echidna with kind blue eyes. There were two wraps of cloth around her two front dreadlocks and around two in the back. She wore a gold band around her head with a square blue sapphire in it. Her large necklace had the same sort of pattern as the headband and an oval sapphire. High up on her right arm was a gold armlet and on her left, a band of cloth was wrapped twice around, a little lower than the armlet. Huge blue bracelets hung above her white gloves. A white tank top wrapped around her body. Her skirt was multi-colored: it started with a white dot, then a red diamond formed around it, a white diamond engulfed that, and it ended in green. The red and white diamonds continued all around the green skirt in a simple pattern. The skirt ended in many little flaps of cloth, surrounding the whole thing. The soles of her shoes were white and rested on the bottom of her feet, tied on by string that wrapped around her feet and bottom of her legs. _But that girl in the green cloak told me to come..._

"Never mind. I'm not done fighting this hedgehog... Stay out of the way this time, Tikal."

"No!" the girl Tikal yelled. "I can't let you fight... I _won't_ let you fight! Please, Knuckles... These people are good. I know they are. It's that doctor that's the evil one."

"What are you talking about? Dr. Eggman came here to warn me about this hedgehog."

"Do you really believe that?"

"Dr. Eggman's up to no good again? This is the third time he's tried something. What's _with_ that guy?" Sonic asked.

"Oh ho ho ho ho!" Eggman laughed as he hovered above the Master Emerald. His machine clamped onto it. "Thank you for keeping the pest busy, Knucklehead!"

"Wh... what?"

"Oh no... The Master Emerald!"

"Sonic!"

"Right!" Sonic charged at Dr. Eggman. Eggman pressed a button and his machine shot a laser at the exhausted hedgehog. It hit, knocking him down the stairs. _"Don't exhaust yourself,"_ Coach Sensei said in Sonic's head. _Great... guess I should've listened to him this time._

Knuckles jumped above Sonic and attempted to punch Eggman, but he pulled the same trick, knocking Knuckles back as well.

"Sonic!"

"Knuckles!"

"Hey! Knuckles, right?" Sonic called over, grabbing Knuckles' attention. "What'd'ya say we get your emerald back?" He held a thumbs-up to Knuckles. Knuckles blinked, confused, before grinning and nodding.

Dr. Eggman laughed and started hovering off as Sonic and Knuckles stood up. Sonic and Knuckles jumped up into the air. They faced each other, grabbed hands, and started spinning in a circle. They spun faster and faster, until they made a huge, dangerously spinning ball. They charged at Dr. Eggman, who quickly tried hovering higher. Sonic and Knuckles went through just below the tip of the Master Emerald. The landed on the ground and each spun around.

"He's too high!" Knuckles complained. Sonic glared at Dr. Eggman, angry. Eggman laughed and floated higher in response.

"I'll fix that!" Tails said, making everyone turn in confusion. Tails two fox tails started spinning, getting faster and faster, much like a helicopter. The tails took to the air, pulling the fox off of the ground. The others gasped, surprised. Tails flew over to Sonic and Knuckles who, after staring a moment longer in awe, held up their hands. Tails grabbed them and the three flew up, straight towards Dr. Eggman. Eggman yelped and attempted to fly higher, but Tails flew faster. Tails moved to the side as Eggman started shooting lasers at him. He dodged every laser, determined to help Sonic and Knuckles.

Tails threw his arms back. He then used all of his strength to chuck Sonic and Knuckles at Eggman. The two soared through the air. Sonic flipped himself around and they attempted their combo spin again. They struck Eggman's floating machine, throwing him off balance and making the Master Emerald fall. At the first possible moment, Knuckles let go and spun himself around to face the Master Emerald. He glided down to it, his dreadlocks waving in the air. His gloved hands grabbed the Master Emerald, and he lowered it onto the ground gently. Knuckles landed next to it and breathed easily. Sonic smiled from where he had landed. He then turned his attention to Eggman, who was retreating empty-handed. _Guess he gets away this time..._ Sonic walked over to Knuckles.

"Well, turns out the _real_ crook decided to show his colors. Maybe if next time you wouldn't be such a _knucklehead_, that won't have to happen again."

Anger rose inside Knuckles. He had half a mind to yell at Sonic, but... He exhaled and calmed himself down. "Thank you... for helping me get the Master Emerald back."

Sonic smiled and gave Knuckles a thumbs-up. "No problem!"

"What are your names?" Tikal asked as Tails landed on the ground. Knuckles picked up the Master Emerald and started walking up the shrine's stone steps with it.

"I'm Sonic, the fox is my best friend Tails, the rabbit is Cream, and her friend there is Cheese."

"I'm Tikal, and my brother is Knuckles."

"I thought you two looked sorta alike!" Sonic said.

"Just because they're echidnas...?" Tails asked. He and Cream exchanged looks, amused. _Cream's really my sister, and we look nothing alike in these forms._

Tikal giggled. "I'm glad everything turned out all right." Knuckles slowly descended the stairs, the Master Emerald back to where it started.

Cream held her hand out to Tikal. "Can we be friends now, Miss Tikal?"

Tikal stared, surprised. She then smiled warmly. "Yes, I'd love that!" The girls shook hands and Cheese cheered.

"What about you?" Sonic turned to Knuckles. "Why don't you join us? We'd love to have more friends." Tails smiled up at the red echidna, who blinked.

Knuckles smirked and shook his head. "I guess it all depends. Don't touch the Master Emerald, and you're on my good side."

Sonic laughed. "Gotcha."

"Then we should get along great! Right?"

"Yeah, as long as Knuckles isn't tricked again."

"Hey, what was that?"

The others laughed.

----


	4. The Power of Chaos

Hello! We're on to chapter four! And this time we're going to play a little game called "Who are Amy, Rouge, and Shadow?" If you can guess who all three of them are, you GEEETTTTTT...:

An invisible plush toy of your favorite character. :D

So! If you wish to participate in this guessing game, just tell me who you think each of them are and your favorite character! I will announce the winners in the next chapter. And with that, it is time to start this chapter! (I just wish I had thought to do this sooner!)

Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, or any of the other characters from the games or Sonic X.

**--The Power of Chaos--**

Kevin Hogosha walked home from school alone; his sister was staying after to make up a test. When he heard his name being called, he turned around to see his friend Mike running over. Kevin stood and waited for Mike to catch up before they both continued walking.

"Where's everyone else?" Mike asked. "I didn't see them as I left."

"Henry stayed after to work on some difficulties with the news team, Paul stayed after for Chess Club, John got checked out today, and Ruby's walking home with some senior guy she met today," Kevin informed his friend.

Mike laughed. "Aww, but I _like_ walking home with Ruby! I was hoping I could ask her out today." Kevin sighed.

"Bother if you only want a few dates."

"Huh? Only a few? Why?"

"She'll go on dates with _anyone_, as long as they're not ugly... But I hear she absolutely _refuses_ to be anyone's girlfriend."

"Really? I never would've guessed! Have you ever asked her out, Kevin?"

"Of course not!" Kevin yelled, his face red. "She's just my friend."

"Well, I'll try anyway!" Mike said, determined. "And... you said Paul has Chess Club today?"

"Yeah. He said they have a tournament, so he'll be staying very late."

"Think he'll finally beat that ten-year-old kid?"

"Let's hope."

"Oh yeah! Henry was saying how we should go to that floating island and see what's going on there!"

Kevin stopped dead in his tracks. "_Are you crazy_?" he demanded. "We are _not_ going!"

"John's worried about what Henry said about the hostile monsters, but he's the only one against it so far. Paul says there has to be some _logical_ explanation, and he wants to find out what it is." Mike laughed. "That's just like him."

"We're not going. It's too dangerous."

"Geez, Kevin, I never knew you to back down from something like this. Guess you're just a _weakling_ after all."

"_I am not weak_!" Kevin yelled in his defense.

"Sorry, bud; actions speak louder than words. Oh well, we're going to try going with or without you."

"And just how do you plan on _getting_ to a floating island?"

"Rubs said she'd handle that."

Kevin clinched his fist. Things couldn't get any worse.

"I guess I'll just have to tell them that you're too scared and are backing out on us."

"_I am not_!"

"So you're coming?" Mike asked excitedly.

_Okay, scratch that. They can get worse,_ Kevin thought._ Great, now what am I supposed to do?_ He suddenly tripped over something and fell forwards. He threw his hands out and caught himself.

"You okay, Kevin?"

Kevin turned put his knees down and turned his head to see what he had tripped over. He noticed a huge jewel just lying on the sidewalk, with no one to claim it. It shone white, reminding Kevin of how the Master Emerald shone. The white jewel was even shaped like the Master Emerald, but it was much smaller. Kevin turned around and slowly picked it up.

"Wow, that's a nice find! You should give it to a girl or something! She'd love you forever!"

"Why must you always think like that...?"

"Think like what?"

"Never mind..." He ran his hands over the jewel. It continued to shine brightly, casting its own light. He frowned; jewels don't normally create light.

"So what are you going to do with it? Huh? Huh?" Mike pestered. "Oh! I know! Can I have it? I could give it to Ruby! She's absolutely _love_ that!"

"No. It probably belongs to a museum," Kevin said, although he didn't believe that. "I'm going to find the owner of this and return it."

Mike sighed. "Okay, okay. Geez, you get a good jewel and you just give it away to some museum. Well, whatever."

Kevin quickly chose a direction and pointed towards it. "I'm going to go this way and try. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Uh, the closest museum is that way," Mike said, pointing in almost the opposite direction.

"It is?"

"Yeah. Well, good luck with that! See you tomorrow, Kev!"

Kevin hurried off in the direction Mike pointed until he felt that Mike was far enough away. Kevin then turned into an alleyway. _This jewel... reminds me of the Master Emerald... but its not quite the same..._ He tucked it away in an inside pocket of his jacket and ran home, hoping that his sister would get home soon as well.

----

Later that day, Tim stared at the watch Tails had given him. He and Hiei had just finished their homework, and Tim was bored. _There's still lots of time left in the day... This is so boring!_ He pressed the yellow button; they still had yet to use this thing, so he wanted to try it out. "Testing? Does this thing work?"

"Hey, Sonic!" Tails' voice piped up through the speakers on the watched.

"Hey, Tails," Tim greeted, not changing into his hedgehog form since his parents might come in. "What are you up to on this boring day?"

"I'm actually making some more of these watches... for Knuckles and Tikal. With everything that's going on, it might be wise for them to be able to communicate with us, just in case. Oh yeah, I'll need your watch soon so I can modify it."

"All right. ...Are you going to that island—Angel Island, right?—to give the watches to them?"

"Yep, I'm setting out in a few minutes."

"Wait for me!" Tim yelled in the thing as he threw his socks and tennis shoes on. He ran downstairs in a rush, not even bothering to turn the watch microphone off. He called to his parents as he walked out of the door, "Mom, Dad, I'm going out! I'll be back later!" He slammed the door behind him and ran down an alleyway, where he changed into Sonic the Hedgehog so he could run faster.

Tails laughed on the other side of the watch. "I'll wait for you, Sonic, so feel free to take your time."

_Knock, knock._

"Hold on, there's someone here," Tails said as he muted the whole watch. He opened the door to find Sonic standing on the other side of it.

"Yeah, me," Sonic said, grinning.

"Mr. Sonic is fast!" Cream said from her seat at the eating table in the workshop.

"Chao chao!"

Tails smiled. "I see your getting better at running."

Sonic walked in and plopped down in a seat. "Are you crazy? Do you know how many walls are in between here and there? I could probably tell you!"

"Do you want anything to eat or drink before we leave?" Tails offered, opening a refrigerator.

Sonic stared. There hadn't been a refrigerator before... Now, along with the refrigerator, were counters. The one right next to the refrigerator had nothing on it, but once it reached the corner, the stashes of plates, silverware, and cups were sat out in an orderly fashion all the way until the sink. To the left of a sink was another small empty counter above the dishwasher. The counter next to that held the microwave and toaster oven. The stove sat next to those with one more counter to its left, ending the line of new appliances. "Wooow, you put a kitchen in here?"

"Yes, I used what money I had to buy things for this workshop. Now it can be more like a home for us."

"You've also done a bit of cleaning up... I'll take a Gatorade if you have it."

"I'm afraid I don't really have much yet... How about water?"

"That'll do."

Tails took out the water and used one of his fox tails to close the refrigerator door behind him. "Feel free to put anything you want on the grocery list... I'll leave that on the refrigerator until I buy groceries." He grabbed a cup from off of the counter and poured his friend some water. He put the carton up and took the water over to the blue hedgehog. Meanwhile, Cheese flew over to the counter left of the stove, where it grabbed something and flew back over. It dropped two keys next to Sonic's water before sitting back down on the table next to Cream.

"Huh? What's this?"

"That's so Mr. Sonic can come to the workshop at any time!"

"The silver one's for the workshop, and the one with the black on it is for the Tornado II."

"You trust me with that thing?"

"Well, in your previous life, you _did_ own the first Tornado," Tails pointed out. "Besides, that day Cream, Cheese, and I came to help you... that was my first day flying an airplane in this life."

"_What?_"

Tails walked over to his work desk, where he continued to work on the new watches. Both his and Cream's already had new buttons on them. "I'm almost done with these," Tails said, "and then I'll need to see yours."

"Okay." Sonic went ahead and took his watch off. He laid it on the table for when Tails needed it.

"Geez, if I had known you were still working, I wouldn't have run so fast," Sonic complained.

"I said a few minutes... But just see it as good practice. Oh yeah, speaking about that... I've been thinking. You have a human form, too, don't you?" Sonic nodded. "Knuckles and Tikal are probably the same way... So since we're not used to these bodies, we should practice some. Maybe we can do that when we deliver the watches."

"Hey, that's a great idea!" Sonic agreed. _And that way, my brother and that stupid Kevin won't laugh at me!_ He grinned wildly.

"Mr. Sonic? Are you okay?"

"Of course! So, when do we start? I have a reputation to watch!"

"We'll see what Knuckles and Tikal think when we get there," Tails answered as he grabbed Sonic's watch. The new watches were now complete. "Luckily I left a lot of room on these..." Tails said about the watches. "I'll only have room left for one more button on this side, though. If we meet more people, I'll have to start moving the buttons over to the talk side..."

"You know, if you get too much on there, people will start wondering... they won't think those are watches anymore."

"I know, but there's not much I can do. Besides, they tell the time, don't they? You can say these are for alarms."

"I guess so. But..." Sonic stopped, thinking.

"Is something wrong, Sonic?" Tails asked as he moved on to the second button.

"I was just wondering... why is this happening? Why now? Why us? How many of us are there?"

"I don't know... there may be no answer... I guess that, even if we were born in different bodies, we still have the same soul... As to how many, only time will tell us."

"But why? Wouldn't we normally have been born at different times?"

Tails' eyes widen; he hadn't really considered that. He thought for a minute before continuing off of Sonic's question. "You're right. According to the basic laws of nature, everything happens at random. Even though we were somehow reincarnated, we should've been born in different places and probably completely different centuries. What's more is how we know about our previous lives..."

"...It's all just too perfect," Sonic ended. He stared at his water, thinking. Tails, Cream, and Cheese also sat in silence, thinking about this. Realizing that they wouldn't get answers yet, Tails turned to his worktable and continued his work on the watch.

"What brought that up, anyway, Sonic?"

"Well... When I first found out I was a hedgehog... I saw three people. The short one was in a green cloak, the medium one was in a red cloak, and the tall one was in a blue cloak... They said, 'It's time for you to awaken, Sonic the Hedgehog'..."

"But they couldn't have control over this, could they?"

"I don't know..." Sonic picked up his cup of water and chugged it down. He slammed it on the table and stood up. "We'll have to ask them next time we see them. Are you done with that thing? I'm ready to go!" He walked over to the dishwasher, opened it, and put his empty cup in it.

"Almost..." Tails concentrated harder, carefully working with the wires. Since the watch was so small, he had to use tweezers to move the wires. He connected the last two and closed the watch. He started screwing it back in. "There. Go ahead and hop in the Tornado II."

"But... there's only room for two people."

_Oh yeah!_ Tails thought. He hadn't gotten around to upgrading the amount of seats. He stared at the two, hopelessly, trying to decide what to suggest: Sonic sitting on the wing or someone staying behind. He didn't want to suggest either.

Sonic smiled, closing his eyes. When he opened them, he held up a thumb. "Don't worry, I can sit on a wing. Just don't pull any crazy stunts this time, okay?"

"Okay!" Tails agreed happily. He gave the watch back to Sonic, who put it on. He grabbed the other two watches and hopped in the Tornado II. He started the engine up while waiting for the others to get situated.

----

"Miss Tikal! Mr. Knuckles!" Cream yelled as she ran up the stairs leading to the Master Emerald. Cheese flew next to her, while Sonic and Tails walked behind her. Cream reached the top to find Tikal standing there, smiling.

"Hello. I didn't expect you to come visit," she greeted.

"Hi Miss Tikal!"

Sonic and Tails finally made it to the top, where they gave their own greetings before looking around.

"Huh? Where's Knuckles?" Sonic asked.

Tikal's smile grew. "I'm glad you two are getting along. He's at home... we decided it would be best if we switched off who came to watch the Master Emerald some at school." Her expression lost some of its happiness as her smile weakened and a glint of sadness shone in her eyes. "I suppose we should probably find something to secure it... it's hard protecting the Master Emerald here when we have other lives..."

"Oh...!" Sonic suddenly imagined what it would be like if he had something far away to protect. "That must be tough work... Why do you guys have to protect it, anyway? It's been fine for years, hasn't it?"

"Yes, but with everything going on, there's no telling how long that will last... and brother feels that he must keep it safe, no matter what."

"Is something wrong, Miss Tikal?"

Tikal stared at Cream, surprised. "W-what? Why would you say that? We're doing fine, we seem to have the Master Emerald situation under control!"

"It's just that..." Cream begun, thinking, "...you looked _sad_..."

Sonic glanced at Tikal's face to see it covered with only surprise now. Since Cream wouldn't continue, he decided that he would: "If something's bothering you, don't be afraid to talk to any of us. We're all here to help!"

"Yeah!"

"Chao!"

Tikal smiled again. "Thank you... thank you all..." She paused before continuing. "To tell the truth... I am a little worried... about Knuckles..."

"Why? What's going on? Is he being tricked again?"

Tikal giggled. "No. It's just that... he's really been taking this protection business extra seriously. It must've been important to him in his previous life... but..." Tikal sighed. It was too late to turn back on what she had started saying. She stood tall and stared directly at the others. "He's even been considering giving up his new life to protect it."

"What?"

"He can't!"

"Chao chao!"

"That's crazy...!" Sonic said, as awe struck as the others. "Why would he do something like that? He's spent so long in this life, why would he give up all of that, all of his family and friends?"

"I don't know... I guess the Master Emerald is important to him. Maybe none of us can ever understand that. But... he also has _friends_ that are important to him, so I believe he'll stay the way he is."

"That's good to hear."

"It's still really hard to keep track of the Master Emerald like this..." Tikal muttered as she stared at it. "What if it's taken while we're away? We have no way of telling who may have it."

"I'll do something about that," Tails offered. "I'll make a small camera for you or something so you can see how it's doing."

"That'd be great."

"Here, I have something for you and Knuckles." Tails handed the watches over.

"Watches...?"

"That's what they look like, but they're actually made for us to communicate with each other. The blue button is for Sonic, the..." Tails began explaining the watch to Tikal while Sonic turned around and sat down on the stairs. _Guess this means we won't be practicing..._ Sonic thought, disappointed.

"When you give that to Knuckles, tell him to contact us. We were thinking about arranging a training session, since we all need to get used to these bodies."

"That's a great idea! I'm sure he'd love to do that. Oh! That reminds me... Knuckles wanted to see you anyway."

"He did? What for?"

Sonic turned to stare at them as he listened in, very curious.

"He found something today. It's a jewel, much like the Master Emerald... only it shines white. We can't figure out anything about it, and we were hoping you could help us."

"We'll definitely take a look at it. When can we meet up with him next?"

"How about tomorrow? Here?"

"Sounds good."

----

Karen came home to find that her brother had gone out for a walk. She walked upstairs to her room, where she sat on her desk and began her homework. Cold wind blew in through her window, so she stood up and walked over to close it. Outside, she saw something very peculiar: Dr. Eggman was searching around their house. In his hand, he held what looked to be a radar. He thought as he stared at it and turned towards the house. _What is he doing now...?_ He walked around to the front of the house. Soon afterwards, the doorbell rang. Karen's heart leaped. _Oh no... this is bad... very bad..._ She gasped as she realized what he was after. _The jewel!_ She ran to her brother's room and grabbed the shining white jewel. She threw open the back window as she turned into Tikal the Echidna. She jumped out and used her dreadlocks to capture air, allowing her to glide as Knuckles had done before. She landed on the street and started running, holding the shining jewel in both hands.

She stopped around the first corner she found and looked back—she had to be sure that he wasn't after something else before she ran too far. She saw Eggman running, watching the radar—he was running straight for Tikal. She glanced at the jewel before running off, holding it tight in her gloved hands.

_Why... Why is he after _this_ jewel?_ She quickly transferred it to just her left hand and reached for the watch with her right hand. She didn't know which button she pressed, but it didn't matter right now. "Help! Dr. Eggman's after the jewel! I'm on..." she quickly searched for a street name. "I'm running down Napalm Street!"

Tikal suddenly stopped and her eyes widened: a bunch of orange robots stood in front of her. She held the jewel tightly as she turned to find a way around them. They quickly spread out until the only way out was back where she came from. She started to run that way, but Dr. Eggman walked up and cut her off.

"Well, well... If it isn't the echidna girl..." Eggman said, staring at her. Tikal gulped and glared at him. She clutched the jewel, determined not to let him have it.

"What are you up to now?" she demanded.

"I only want that tiny jewel that you're holding. There's nothing wrong with that, right? I won't bother the Master Emerald if you give me that."

_What? He's offering to not bother the Master Emerald? Is this jewel... really that strong? That he can forget the Master Emerald?_ "Why do you want it?"

"That's none of your business. Now, do we have a deal?"

"No!" she yelled. _I will not make the mistake of trusting this man, nor will I place any power in his hands._

"Too bad... then I'll just have to take it from you."

The robots aimed their guns at Tikal as Dr. Eggman moved well out of the way. She drew herself in, scared. _No... there has to be something I can do...!_

_Bonk!_ One of the robots fell forward after being hit by a chao. Cheese viciously attacked it. The other robots turned their guns to Cheese and fired, but the chao quickly flew up; the other robots only killed their robot friend. Tears of happiness stung Tikal's eyes when she saw Cream as well. Cream flew over, flapping her rabbit ears to stay in the air. She reached down as she passed over Tikal, and Tikal gladly stuck a hand up. The two flew through the air, Cheese following close behind. They flew above the city, heading towards the workshop.

From the ground, Tim, Miles, and Kevin were in different parts of the city when they noticed the girls flying. Alert, all three of them ran after the girls to see what was going on, changing into their respective animal forms as they ran.

The boys burst through the workshop door at the same time, all yelling, "What's going on?"

Tikal and Cream sat at the table, drinking water, while Cheese sat on the table. The white jewel had been thrown on the table. Tails walked over and picked it up.

"Is this what you were telling us about, Tikal?"

"Yes..." answered Tikal. "Dr. Eggman was after it."

"Dr. Eggman? But why this jewel?" Sonic asked, staring at it.

"If we check the power levels on it, maybe we can find out..." Tails walked over to a machine with the jewel. He gently put the jewel down inside of it and closed it, much like an oven. He walked around it to the computer screen and keyboard. The others curiously walked over and stared over his shoulder.

"What's that?" Knuckles asked.

"It'll tell us how much power is in this jewel." Tails started up the machine. The screen turned on, showing a chart. The line on the chart climbed quickly, faster than Tails had ever imagined. The machine exploded, spreading smoke everywhere. Everyone coughed up smoke until it cleared out the still-open door.

"I don't believe this..." Tails muttered when he was able to breath, his eyes wide.

"So... what does that mean?" Sonic asked.

"It's really powerful! It's off the charts!"

"What is it?" Knuckles asked as he grabbed it from the broken machine.

"It's a Chaos Emerald," a girl's voice said from behind them. The group turned to find the girl in the green cloak standing there. "There are seven in all."

"There are _seven_ of these things?" Sonic burst out. "Well that's just _great_. So the good doctor gets a hold of _one_ of these and we're screwed, but no, he gets all _seven_! _Then_ what?"

"The seven Chaos Emeralds work best together. Together, they create a ton of energy, and only one thing can stop it."

"Well, then, what is it?" Knuckles asked.

She stared directly at Knuckles. "The Master Emerald."

"What?"

She turned around and started walking to the wall.

"Wait!" Cream called. "Who are you?"

She paused, not moving for a minute. Then, without an answer, she continued walking. She walked straight through the wall without slowing down one bit. Everyone gasped.

"W-what is she?"

"Is... is she a..."

"A ghost?"

"But... she helped us, so she can't be bad..." Cream pointed out, trembling despite herself.

"Seven Chaos Emeralds... The Master Emerald... What's with all of these emeralds?" Sonic demanded.

"The seven Chaos..." Tikal started thinking. She turned to stare at her brother. "Knuckles, remember that thing that grandma told us?"

"What, the whole 'chaos is like water' thing?"

"No! Let's see... 'The servers are the seven Chaos'..." Tikal started thinking, not remembering the rest.

"'Chaos is power, power enriched by the heart,'" Knuckles continued, almost as if he had said it every day of his life. "'The controller is the one that unifies the chaos.' You mean that?"

"Huh? What does that mean?" Sonic asked.

"No clue," answered Knuckles.

"Grandma used to say that sometimes in her sleep. She died before she ever explained what it meant."

"Seven Chaos... But surely she couldn't have known about the Chaos Emeralds, could she?"

"I don't know..."

"Either way," Tails spoke up, "if there are seven of them, we have to find the other six before Dr. Eggman gets them."

"Who cares?" Sonic said, shrugging.

"What?"

"Even if he _does_ get them, we have the Master Emerald, remember?"

"Umm... There's just one problem with that, Sonic..." Knuckles said.

"What is it?"

"We... don't really know how to use the power of the Master Emerald..."

"Couldn't Tails just make a machine?"

"It's not that easy. It's hard to judge how much power the Master Emerald has, and making a machine that could distribute that much power would take a _lot_ of time. It would be easiest to gather the Chaos Emeralds and keep them away from Dr. Eggman."

"Well, you guys have fun with that," Knuckles said.

"What? Aren't you going to help?"

"Nope. I have a more important job: protecting the Master Emerald."

"But you can't even _use_ that thing!"

"It's still very powerful and needs to be protected! Besides, maybe that ghost friend of yours will tell me how to use it if we need to."

"Can't you at least help a little?"

"I'll give them to you if I find them. Other than that, you're on your own."

Sonic grumbled angrily.

"Uhh... Oh!" Tails ran up to them. "Knuckles, would you like to join us in some training tomorrow? It would be best if we all got used to these bodies."

"Really? Training?" Knuckles thought about it. _Heh heh... With some good training, I could easily beat Tim at anything..._ "Sure!"

"All right!" Sonic cheered. _Now I won't run into any more walls! Kevin will be so jealous of me! And my brother will recognize my greatness as well!_

The two grinned happily, excited about the training idea.

----

Tim laid his head on his desk—how he hated waking up so early. He thought about the white Chaos Emerald, shining in his desk drawer. _It'll be all right. Dr. Eggman's my teacher, so I don't have to worry about the emerald at school..._

The bell rang and everyone quickly hurried to his or her seat as Dr. Eggman walked to the front. He scanned over the class to see who was missing. His eyes stopped on the desk to the right of Tim's, and he wrote something down in his book. Tim turned to his right to see what was going on—the desk was empty.

Tim leaned over to his left and whispered to Miles, "Hey, where's Emily? She's never late for school..."

"I don't know. Maybe she's sick?"

----

"Emily! Emily, open the door _now_!" a female voice yelled from the other side of a door. The room inside was dark, only lit by a tiny bit of light peeking past the blinds on a window. The pink room was covered in dolls, with hearts plastered all over the walls. Someone knocked angrily on the door, making the girl on the bed pull her covers closer to her.

"Not now, Mom! I'm not feeling well! Go away!" the girl on the bed yelled.

"Emily, what's wrong?" Her mom attempted to turn the doorknob. "You're going to be late for school! Emily, let me in!"

"Leave me alone!" the girl screamed at the top of her lungs. She had no idea what else to do, or what was going on—all she knew was that suddenly, she was a pink hedgehog with no way of changing back. _I can't... I can't be with Tim if I'm not human!_

----

...Oh yeah. I forgot Amy was shown at the end of this chapter. So I guess you get a free-be... :D'' So if you want to participate, you only have to guess who Rouge and Shadow are.

Also, if you're wondering about 'Napalm' Street... Yes, I got that name from Ragnarok Online. XD' I was out of ideas, and I had RO up. Or something.

Good luck!

Sonic Triple Kingdom

-Ayame


	5. The Heart of a Rose

FIRST AND FOREMOST! Thank you so so very very much, the three people who reviewed! You three are completely awesome! And thank you for the suggestions you gave me! (Those will kick in more when I get to chapter eight... Chapters five, six, and seven are already typed up.) Well, thank you again! You guys get...

...Hold on, thinking...

I know! Invisible cloaks! ...No, they do not turn you invisible. They're just... invisible... Don't lose them.

As for my game, only Starry-chan played, and since I promised her that I would tell her in this chapter if she won...

Starry-chan wins a free invisible Amy Rose plush toy! Now you just need an invisible Sonic one... Have fun with it! (And don't lose it!)

Now on to the story!

Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, or any of the other characters from the games or from Sonic X (which means I do not own Tim and the others, either). They're owned by Sonic Team.

**--The Heart of a Rose--**

The pink hedgehog sat up in her bed. Her pink spikes feel neatly around her head, framing it nicely. She wore a red hair band behind her hedgehog ears. Her dress was pink, and after the waist, it fanned out before ending in a white stripe. Her red shoes had a vertical white stripe across them. Above both of her gloved hands, she wore yellow bracelets. _What am I doing? Sitting here isn't going to help me change back. How did I even get like this...?_ She thought back to the other night.

_"Wouldn't it be so cool if we were hedgehogs, too?" Sam asked over the phone. "I'd love to go on an adventure with that blue hedgehog! ...What was his name, again?"_

_"Sonic," Alice reminded her._

_Emily lay on her bed, holding the phone to her ear. "But if you're a hedgehog, that really limits your dating possibilities. I want to be with Tim, so human for me, thanks."_

_Sam laughed. "That's just like you, Emily!"_

_"It's said that the number of animals like Sonic are growing..." Alice pointed out._

_"I wonder why that is..." Sam muttered._

_"We should still meet them and find out! Maybe we can join up with them even though we're human!"_

_"Aren't they fighting our teacher or something? You really have to wonder about the truth..." Sam said. "Don't get me wrong, I hate Dr. Eggman, but even though he's a mean old man, has he really done anything evil yet?"_

_"You _can't_ be suggesting that the animals are evil!" Emily said, shocked._

_"I don't know what the truth is, I'm just pointing out the possibilities."_

_"Emily! Get to bed!" Emily's mother called from outside of Emily's room._

_"Okay! ...Sorry, you two... I have to go."_

_"Okay. Good night, Emily!"_

_"Good night!" Emily hung up and lay down on her bed. She felt very tired, so she fell asleep right away._

The girl stood up and stared at herself in the mirror again; much to her horror, she was still a hedgehog. _So then I had that dream... that I was a pink hedgehog, chasing after Sonic... and when I woke up, I was a pink hedgehog!_ She clinched her fists, determined to fix this. _I'll just find that Sonic hedgehog and ask him what to do!_

"Emily, are you up now?" her mom asked worriedly through the door.

_Uh-oh, I can't go that way._ She opened her window and slowly climbed out. She tried climbing down the house, but she slipped and fell all the way to the bottom. She cringed in pain, yelling "Owww!" as she sat on the ground. She stood up and brushed herself off. She then started walking on the street, having no idea where to start. _So, if I were a hedgehog, where would I be...? Oh wait..._ she sighed. _I just want to be with Tim, why is this happening?_

She kept walking, not paying attention to where she was going. She soon heard a school bell, breaking her from her concentration. High school students started walking out in the street, away from her school. The girl gasped and quickly hid around the school. She watched as her friends came out of school, talking. Her heart leapt when she saw Tim. _I have to become human again soon, for him..._

Dr. Eggman soon walked out of the school.

_Hey, that's right! Sonic fights Dr. Eggman, right? So I can just follow him! I'm sure to find Sonic soon that way!_ The pink hedgehog pushed herself off of the school fence and walked behind the doctor at a good distance, using buildings to hide herself. She followed him all the way to a lab outside the city. He walked inside and disappeared.

The pink hedgehog touched the side of the building. _Is this his... secret base?_

"It's a hedgehog!"

"Catch it!"

The girl gasped as she turned to see who was talking—two robots, a tall yellow one and a short gray one, were running directly towards her, holding a net. She immediately ran around the building, and they chased her.

"Get back here!"

"No! Leave me alone!"

They circled the building a few times at a run. Eggman looked out the window when he noticed his two faithful robots dash by. Angry that they would rather run around than help him, he burst open the door leading to the outside, right after the hedgehog had passed by. "What's going on here?" he demanded. The two robots stopped upon noticing him.

"Dr. Eggman!"

"Amy Rose is here! We have to catch her!" the short, fat one said, pointing past the doctor.

"Amy Rose? Who's that?"

The girl saw this as her chance to escape. She started tiptoeing away, hoping that they wouldn't notice her.

"Her!" the robots yelled simultaneously as they pointed at the pink hedgehog. She broke out at a run as the two robots started chasing her again.

"Intruder! After her!" Dr. Eggman yelled out behind her, unleashing more robots.

The girl ran for the city as the robots chased after her. One robot threw out a net, grabbing the girl and the original two robots in it. It slowly dragged the three back to the base. "Hey! Ow, that hurts! Let me go!"

"How did we get caught in this, too?" the tall robot asked the shorter one.

"I don't know, but Dr. Eggman will let us out when we get back."

"I'm going to have dents all over me by that time!"

"You're complaining? I'm hitting the ground harder!"

"No, I am!"

"No, I am!"

Anger rose in the pink hedgehog as she listened to the pair bicker. "SHUT UP!" she finally yelled, making the two turn in awe. "Stop it! Stop arguing! It's because of you that I'm in this stupid thing! When I get out, I'm going to... I'm going to...!" She raised her right hand up in the air as if she was going to strike one of them with it, but then it occurred to her that that would just hurt her hand more than it would hurt them. _If only I had a _weapon_ of some sort..._

She felt the handle of something touch her hand. She turned her head to stare up and she found that she now held a yellow and red hammer. The handle that she held on to was yellow, but the base it connected to was red. It grew on either side into yellow ends. She turned to the robots, an evil glint in her eyes. "Well, isn't that convenient?" she asked them menacingly. The two robots quickly backed up as far as they could in their ropey prison, scared. The net jerked, making the pink hedgehog fall forwards. She dropped the hammer on the ground, the two robots quickly grabbed it.

"Now, now, don't be so feisty," Eggman scolded her. "Decoe, Bocoe, stop fooling around."

"Dr. Eggman! We got caught while chasing her!"

"You said this girl's name is Amy Rose?"

"Yes, Dr. Eggman!"

"We can use her to catch Sonic!"

"What? Me? I don't even _know_ him! And he's not the one who I want saving me, anyway!"

"WHAT?" The two robots, Decoe and Bocoe, exchanged confused looks.

"I thought this crazy hedgehog always chased after poor Sonic..."

"That was hundreds of years ago... maybe she's chasing after someone else now?"

"Whoever it is, I feel sorry for him."

The pink hedgehog grew furious. She started flaming, angry. Decoe and Bocoe quickly hid her hammer behind them, but that didn't bother her at all. She stood up, glaring fire at the two. She held her right hand out and summoned another hammer to it. This hammer was larger than the first, frightening Decoe and Bocoe even more. She swung the hammer wildly, screaming. It got caught in the net and, in her attempt to tear the net off, she tore the net up and freed herself.

"Don't think you can escape!" Dr. Eggman said as he approached her.

"Eww! Stay away from me, you creep!" the girl yelled as she swung the hammer, with the net still on it, at him. She hit the doctor, _hard_, making him fly to the ground, tangled in the net. She dropped the hammer and took off at a run.

----

_Knock, knock._

"Tim, Hiei! Two young ladies are at the door!" a woman called up the stairs.

Tim and Hiei, who were playing video games, turned to each other, bright red—their mother would never leave this alone. They both grumbled as they trudged downstairs to see who was visiting.

Sam and Alice sat in the living room, talking to the boys' mother.

"I don't believe I've met you before," the mother said. "You two are so cute! Both of the boys are really nice, aren't they?"

"Yes, they're good friends of ours," Alice said kindly.

"Motherrr..." Tim complained.

"Well there you two are! You took your time! You know you really shouldn't make girls wait like that, especially if you ever plan to ask them out."

"We don't plan to do anything like _that_!" Tim yelled angrily.

Hiei glared at the visitors, angry that their mother was acting like this again. "What do you want?" he asked coldly.

"We just wanna visit, chill," Sam said.

Mrs. Parker offered to make them something to drink and, to the boys' relief, walked into the kitchen. Tim sat down while Hiei stood, not moving even an inch.

"Your mom's really nice," Alice complimented.

"Nice? More like annoying!"

"We just got back from visiting Emily," Sam said. "She's very sick—she won't even let her mother into her room."

"I'm worried... she must not be feeling well at all..."

"So, we were thinking that we come over here, call Miles up, and the five of us make something nice for her so she'll feel somewhat better!"

"She's that sick, huh...? ...All right! I'll go call Miles—" Timothy was cut off as his watch started beeping. Everyone stared at the time, and then stared at him.

"Uh, were you going to do anything at this time? That's a little odd..."

_Oh great. Who's calling me?_ "Eh heh heh... looks like I set it for the wrong time again..." Tim lied. "I'll go find a phone—this alarm will stop any minute now!" Tim walked out of the room, the watch still beeping. Once out of sight, he raced upstairs and into his room, where he gently closed the door behind him. He turned the button on the watch to pick up the 'call.' "We need to charge an inconvenience fee on this thing."

"Sorry, Sonic," Tails' voice spoke up through the speakers. "I just noticed on the news... it seems there's another one of us."

"What?"

"A pink hedgehog girl... and she seems to be in trouble! Dr. Eggman's robots are chasing her through the street."

"Look, Tails, I'd like to help"—_Okay, so not really_—"but I have friends over. I can't just walk down there, say, 'Oh by the way, I'm a hedgehog, and I have to go save this random girl hedgehog' and walk out. They'd think I'm crazy. Why can't you do it?"

"M-me?"

"Yes you. You helped me out _twice_. If it wasn't for you, I'd be dead about now."

"But... I can't get there fast enough... I'm out at the workshop, busy working on adding more seats to the Tornado II..."

Tim rolled his eyes. "Well what about Knuckles?"

"I already tried asking him. He's at Angel Island."

"Do I have to do everything?"

"I'm sorry, Sonic. I'll come to help you soon, but it'll take me a little while to get out..."

"All right, all right. See ya later," Tim muttered, scowling, as he hung up the watch-phone. He walked downstairs, quickly thinking up an excuse. "Hey guys," he said as he entered the room, "Miles needs some help with something before he comes, so I'm going to go do that and we'll be back soon."

"Okay, we'll be thinking of ideas!" Sam said as she waved bye. Tim walked out the door, where he turned into Sonic the Hedgehog and raced around the city.

It occurred to him that he didn't think of asking _where_ the person is... _Oh well. Guess I can practice running arou—_he hit a wall—_nd..._ He picked himself up, his nose hurting. "I _really_ need to get better at this..." he muttered as he rubbed his long nose. Many people stared at him, their faces full of bewilderment. Sonic put on a cocky grin to show that he was okay as he waved. _I can't let people see me running into things... The word will spread..._ The people shrunk back, not knowing what to think.

"Stop! I wasn't doing anything wrong! Ahh!" a girl's voice yelled.

"I guess that's the damsel in distress. Hey wait, if I save her, does that make me a real hero?" He ran towards the scream, fast. Before he knew it, he ran straight into the robot chasing her. "Oww..." _Okay, not how I was planning to make my appearance..._

A pink hedgehog turned around, amazed. The green robot picked itself up as Dr. Eggman floated over. "So, you're here again!"

"Of course! You know, it's not nice to pick on girls."

The girl's heart skipped a beat as she stared at Sonic the Hedgehog. She watched as the green robot attacked Sonic. He quickly jumped out of the way and spun through the robot, making it explode. "You're next, Eggman!" he said, turning to the doctor.

Dr. Eggman stared at the pink hedgehog and said, "I don't ever want to find you anywhere _near_ my base, '_Amy Rose_'. Next time you won't get away!" Eggman spat her name as he talked. He then angrily flew off in his machine.

"Amy Rose, is it? You okay?" Sonic asked the pink hedgehog.

The girl, Amy, blushed wildly, her heart beating fast. _What's wrong with me? I love Tim, not... not..._ "Y-yeah..."

"You know, you really shouldn't hit on ugly doctors. It doesn't pay off at all."

"I wasn't doing anything like that!" she yelled angrily. "I was trying to find you!"

"Me? Why?"

"Because... I need to know how to change back!"

"Back to your human form? That's easy. You just imagine how you look, and you'll change back."

"Eh? That's it?"

"Yep!"

"Sonic!" Tails called from above, waving.

"It's about time!" Sonic yelled back. "Think you could move any slower?"

"Sorry, I was in the middle of working... I'm going to head back and finish up, then. Bye!"

"Bye," Sonic called after his friend.

"Who was that?" Amy asked, confused.

"That was my best friend, Tails. Oh yeah, since you're like us, you can join the group, too. Tails can make you a watch so you can talk to us as well."

Amy's heart beat faster. _Stop it!_ she scolded herself. _You like Tim! ...So why... why do I feel like I want to be with Sonic now...?_ Amy clinched a hand over her heart.

"Well, I have to go. There's a workshop outside of town... Take the train to the forest out there, and you'll see it to the right... Tails is _always_ there, so ask him to make you a watch if you want to join us."

_If I want to join... I'd like that!_ "Okay!" She clinched her fist, fighting the urge not to hug this blue hedgehog. _What's wrong with me?_

"See ya later, Amy!" Sonic called as he started jogging off.

She couldn't fight it any longer. "WAIT!" she screamed at the top of her lungs as she ran after him. She threw her arms around him, blushing, and wondering why she wanted to do that so much. "Thank you... for helping me!"

"Uhh..." Sonic had no idea what to do. "You're... welcome?" _Great, first Emily and now this?_ "Could you please let go? I have to get going."

"Oh...!" She let go, flustered. _Idiot, you like Tim!_ "I'm sorry! See you later, Sonic!"

"Bye," Sonic said before bolting off.

Three cloaked people watched from the top of a building: a girl in green, a boy in red, and a girl in blue.

"Think we should tell him that he's just made the biggest mistake of his life?" the boy in red joked.

"But Amy seems rather nice. She helped out before... I like her a lot," the girl in blue commented.

"Yeah, she is, but... She goes a little crazy when it comes to Sonic." The boy laughed.

"Yes, but it just shows how much she loves him," the girl in green spoke up. She looked up at the tall girl in blue. "You're right. Amy really is... a kind person."

"Just don't make her mad. This one time..." The boy in red continued talking to his two friends, but none of them noticed who stood behind them. The person behind them was cloaked in black, only his mouth showing under the hood. He smirked. "Just a few more pieces left..." he said to himself. "And then the games will really begin."

----

Tim knocked on Miles' door. _I _really_ hope he can come, because, uh, if not, then the others will know that I lied._

"Hello, Timothy," Miles' mother greeted kindly.

"Hi, Ms. Prower. Is Miles here?"

"No, he and his sister are out right now."

"What?" Tim couldn't believe his luck. "Well, could you please get in touch with him...?"

"Sure. Why don't you come inside?"

----

"Emily!" her whole group yelled as she walked in. Emily stared at them, surprised, as she walked to her seat.

"How are you feeling?" Alice asked.

"Hey," she greeted. "I'm feeling great, thanks!" She turned to Tim, smiling. "Good morning, Tim!"

"'Morning."

"We made something for you, Emily!" Sam said.

"To help you get better," Miles added.

"It's good that your feeling better... I guess we should've given them to you sooner, but..." Tim muttered.

"We stayed up most the night at Tim and Hiei's making them," added Alice.

"...Hope you like them," Hiei spoke up.

Happy that everyone spoke, Sam pulled up a basket from behind her backpack. She plumped it on Emily's desk as Emily stared, blinking in bewilderment. In the basket were tons of paper cranes of different sizes. Most of them were made horribly, but the ones made by Miles and Alice looked wonderful, perfect even. Emily blinked, not knowing what to say.

"There are one hundred of them!" Sam said.

"It's said that one hundred paper cranes makes a person get well," Miles pointed out happily.

Emily smiled widely as tears of happiness swarmed to her face. _I have such... great friends!_ "Thank you! Thank you all so much!" She grabbed the handle of the basket and nuzzled it with her cheek. "I'll treasure these forever, and keep them right by my bed whenever I'm sick!"

----


	6. The Curiosity of People

Knuckles has been hanging out with Rouge too much. He stole not one, but _two_ chapters! Two! Can you believe it?

Well, anyway... Just a few other things before I start the chapter... I've posted the reason behind most of the characters' names on my profile, if anyone's interested... just some fun facts!

I would like to thank Starry-chan for reviewing chapter five! She was the only one to review this time, and I am very grateful to Starry-chan! Also, her stories are really really good! Reading them is beneficial to your health (...I don't know how, but... well, they're just that good!).

I'd also like to thank Dusky-chan for giving me some ideas and helping me work them in to what I have so far! Those 'ideas' won't show up for a few chapters... but yes, Dusky really helped me out a lot!

Thank you both very very much for all of your help and encouragement!

Now enjoy the story!

Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, or anyone else from the games or Sonic X (which includes their human forms)... they're owned by Sonic Team and Sega.

**--The Curiosity of People--**

"Cheater!" Tim yelled angrily.

"I did not cheat! You have the same thing written down!" Kevin screamed back.

"But how come you _always_ win in history? You _must_ cheat!"

"You just can't get over the fact that I'm better than you in history."

"Grr... MILES! I want history lessons!"

"O-okay..." Miles said, scared to be drawn into this conversation.

"Don't drag your friends in!"

"What do you know? ...We'll settle this in P.E.!"

"You're on!" The two glared daggers at each other before angrily walking to the gym. Everyone else waited before following at a good distance.

"I really wish they would stop fighting like this... It would be so much more peaceful..." said Alice.

"Honestly, could you imagine them doing anything _except_ fighting?" Sam asked. "I don't think I could ever imagine _them_ getting along."

"They're both too stubborn," another voice spoke up. Ruby walked by the two girls, only paying attention long enough to point that out.

----

"I heard _someone_ is too scared to go to the floating island with us," Ruby taunted as Kevin walked up to their lunch spot. He blushed wildly, embarrassed as all eyes turned to him.

"I am _not_ scared!" he yelled. "I just don't wanna go!"

"That sounds like the same thing to me," Mike said.

"It's said there was _another_ one yesterday..." Henry told his friends. "This time a pink hedgehog... a girl."

"I wonder if there's a whole home of them on that floating island! That would be so cool!"

"Look, we're not going to Angel Island," Kevin told them. He turned to Ruby. "I don't know _how_ you plan on getting a plane, nor do I _want_ to know, but you're not going to do it, understood?"

"Who made you the boss?"

"Ruby, _please_. I'm not allowing you to reduce yourself to... to some sort of criminal! Not just for this silly adventure! Especially when there are some of them on the ground!"

Ruby blushed. _He still doesn't realize that I've stolen a few gems before... Whoops, guess I 'forgot' to mention that,_ she thought. "It's not that big of a deal, Kevin. We'll just find one in a junk place and get someone to fix it up for us."

"_No!_ We're _not_ doing this! John, help me!"

John winced—he didn't want to be dragged into this conversation. "I think we should listen to Kevin..."

"Thank you!"

"That's the worst help _ever_."

Henry sat, thinking. "Hey, back up... Kevin, what did you call the island?"

"Angel Isla—" He suddenly stopped, bright red. _Oh great, I forgot, they don't know the name of it!_ "I mean, that's what they decided to start calling it on the news, since we need to call it something!"

Henry stared while the rest agreed with Kevin on that point.

"It _is_ rather beautiful... Angel Island is a perfect name!" Paul said.

"I can't wait to see what's on it..." Ruby added.

"We're not going!"

"Please, Kevie? I'll give you a cookie!"

"I said no and I mean _no_! And that's final!"

"Even if you're not going, we still are!"

"Don't! It could be dangerous!"

"So?"

Henry stared at Kevin, not a part of the conversation anymore. _The boy who jumped had long red hair tied in a ponytail and purple eyes... determined purple eyes... The girl had long, light orange hair and blue eyes... Angel Island..._

"Henry, what do you think?"

Henry looked up from his thought process. He stared at all of his friends before standing up. "Kevin, can I talk to you?"

"Huh? ...Sure..." Kevin also stood up. The two walked off, forgetting about their lunch. Only when they were well around the side of the school building did Henry stop.

"What's going on?" Kevin asked.

"No news channel has _ever_ mentioned the name Angel Island."

"O-oh, really? Maybe it was just my imagination mixing with everything going on..."

"When those two humans jumped off of the plane, they said the boy had _purple_ eyes and long, _red_ hair tied in a ponytail. And the girl had light _orange_ hair and blue eyes. Sounds to me like you and your sister..."

_Urk! Henry really catches on to _everything_ in the news..._ Kevin thought, taken aback by Henry bringing this up. "So... so they bare some sort of resemblance. There are many people who look a lot alike in this world..."

"Purple eyes? Rarely _anyone_ has purple eyes."

"They probably thought it was a cool color and got contacts," Kevin pointed out. The bell to end lunch rang, pleasing Kevin very much. "Look, if it _was_ me, I wouldn't be here today, now would I? Come on, let's get to class." Kevin started walking towards the classroom while Henry stood there, thinking. He then followed his friend.

----

"He's starting to catch on," Knuckles complained to Tikal. The two sat on the stairs in front of the Master Emerald.

"Is there something wrong with that? Weren't you complaining the other day about how no one would believe you if you told them that you were an echidna?"

"He's not exactly the person I had in mind when I said that! If he finds out, it'll be all over the news before you know it! Dr. Eggman would know who we _both_ are!"

"Shouldn't you trust your friend...?"

"I do trust him. I trust him to tell all the news channels about it."

Tikal sighed, shaking her head. "That is _not_ what I meant, and you know it."

"Hello!" a hyper voice greeted from the watch speakers. Knuckles and Tikal exchanged confused looks, not recognizing the voice.

"H-hello?" Tikal asked through her watch, which was the watch that had been contacted.

Knuckles pulled Tikal's wrist over. "Who are you?" he demanded into the watch.

"Everyone's taken to calling me Amy Rose, so I guess you can call me that. I'm joining the group!"

"What?"

"Are you that pink hedgehog we heard about?"

"Yep, that's me! And who are you?"

"I'm Tikal. The boy here, my brother, is Knuckles... He's the red button on the watch. We're echidnas."

"Echidnas? What are those?"

"They're mammals on Tasmania," Knuckles explained impatiently.

"Wow, you've come a long way!"

"We didn't come from there!"

"Knuckles, calm down!"

Amy giggled. "I see he's quite the hothead."

"I'm _not_ a hothead!"

"Sorry, bro, but I'm with her on this one."

"What? Hey...!"

"You seem like really nice people... I can't wait to meet you in person!" Amy said. "I hear you guard something called the Master Emerald?"

"Yes. It's a powerful jewel."

"Don't you dare try to touch it, or we won't hesitate to fight you," Knuckles warned.

"Don't worry, I wasn't planning on touching it. You don't mind if I come to see it though, do you?"

"No, it's fine if you come see it!" Tikal invited, ignoring Knuckles' glares. "That'd be great, in fact. If you bring some food, we can have a picnic and get to know each other." Tikal happily smiled at the watch.

"That sounds great! Do you mind if I invite the others?"

"Not at all! The more the merrier."

"Great! We'll be up there soon! I'll contact them!" Amy said, sounding excited.

"All right, we'll be here waiting."

"A picnic...?" Knuckles asked as Tikal turned the communication off.

"I think it'll be very pleasant. Plus, it would help all of us to get to know each other a little better."

Knuckles sighed and leaned back on the steps. Neither said anything as they waited by the Master Emerald. Time passed, and as it got later and later, they waited for the sound of the Tornado II. While waiting, Tikal paced around the Master Emerald, bored, before she took a walk out in the woods. Knuckles found a more comfortable place to lie down and fell asleep. Sometime later, he awoke to frantic calls of his name.

"Knuckles! Knuckles, wake up! Hurry!"

Knuckles sleepily rubbed his eyes. "What, are they here already...?"

"N-no! I-i-it's y-y..." Tikal could barely talk in her nervousness.

"It's _what_?"

Tikal grabbed Knuckles' arm and dragged him down the stairs. "Hey, what's going on?" She picked up speed; by the time they were at the bottom of the stairs, she was attempting to drag him at a run. She ran for a thick area of bushes. "Tikal, _stop_!" Knuckles demanded, firmly planting himself in the ground. Tikal could no longer drag him. "What's going on? I thought you _invited_ them, so why are you trying to hide?"

"I didn't invite _these_ people!"

"What are you _talking_ about?"

He heard rustling bushes not too far off—people were walking their way. Familiar voices talked and joked around, but none of them sounded like Sonic or Tails...

"We're almost there, guys! Is everyone ready?"

"This is going to make the top of the news!"

"Shh, the hostile creatures might hear us!"

"Don't worry, they can't hurt _that_ much."

"Besides, we came well prepared."

_Wait... that's...! They didn't!_ Knuckles thought, his eyes wide. As the footsteps got even closer, he shoved Tikal into the undergrowth and jumped in himself, cursing in his head. _I can't believe this! _And_ we're expecting Sonic's group..._ Knuckles brought his left arm up to his mouth and pressed the yellow button, deciding that he'd ask Tails to delay the flight. "Tails, can you hear me?" he whispered.

"Yeah, what's going on? Are you okay, Knuckles? You sound a little... weak..." Tails' voice came through loud and clear.

"What was that?" Knuckles heard John ask. Knuckles peeked out of the bushes to see his friends looking around. They wore normal clothes; Ruby wore something tight and very showing, but easy to move around in. Most of them carried sticks, but Mike carried a sword with him. Along with carrying a stick, Henry also carried a camera, no doubt so he could give the tape to his favorite news station.

"Knuckles? Are you there? Knu—" Knuckles closed the connection. He held his head, not knowing what to do.

"It suddenly stopped..."

"Do you think it was a ghost?"

Knuckles turned to Tikal, a thought now on his mind. "Hey, sis, how well do you think we can play being ghosts?" he whispered.

"Not very, seeing as how we're alive. And plus, you may have to make a fool of yourself if we do that," Tikal answered, speaking softly.

Knuckles cringed; he _hated_ making a fool of himself.

"We haven't seen any 'hostile creatures' yet," Mike said, throwing out 'hostile creatures' as one would make fun of a children's book. A few of the others laughed, but John nervously looked around.

"Who wants to go up the stairs first?" Henry asked.

_This is just getting worse and worse...!_

"I do!" Ruby volunteered. She happily took one step on the shrine and eagerly ascended the stairs.

_Think, think, think!_ Knuckles told himself, trying to figure out what to do.

Before Knuckles could think of anything, all of his friends saw it: the Master Emerald.

"It's so... pretty..."

"So this is what's here..."

Ruby grinned as she stared at the emerald. _This is perfect..._ she thought as she reached her hands out.

Knuckles snapped.

"_Don't touch the Master Emerald!_" he yelled at the top of his lungs as he shot up in an aggressive stance like a bullet.

"Knuckles!" Tikal yelled out despite herself. She covered her mouth, but it was too late. All eyes were on them.

"Is that... the creature?"

"It spoke!"

"It's hostile all right," Ruby added.

Knuckles took his hands down so he stood in a less hostile way. _These are my _friends_... I just need to find some way to get them to leave..._ Tikal stood up, knowing it was too late to hide.

The deafening sound of the Tornado II filled the ears of everyone on Angel Island.

"Another plane?" Ruby asked, but the boys paid neither her nor the emerald any mind. They leapt down the stairs and raced over to stand a good ten feet in front of Knuckles. They stared at him, very interested in what he was. The sound of the Tornado II stopped, and there was nothing besides the chirping of birds and the scatters of mice.

_Great. Just great. Now what...?_ He turned his head to stare in the direction he had just heard the Tornado II. He soon felt something sharp poking him on the arm. He turned to see what it was to find that Mike had taken Henry's stick and was now using it to poke the red echidna.

Knuckles grabbed the stick in his right, gloved hand, surprising his human friends. He easily wrenched the stick out of Mike's hand. The echidna took it in both hands and snapped it in half as if it were a dried up twig instead of a long, thick stick. He glared at them, trying to look intimidating despite his anxiousness. He dropped the two halves of the stick on the ground, obviously not caring for them anymore. The boys backed up, scared.

_So he snapped a small stick, what are they worried about?_ Ruby thought. She stared at the huge, beautiful emerald. _This is more important than that deformed _rat_ any day._

"Don't touch the Emerald," Knuckles warned. Ruby jumped and turned to stare at the crowd. She smirked and poked the emerald lightly with her right index finger.

_That idiot..._ Knuckles thought, annoyed. _This is no time for games!_

"Yo," a familiar voice greeted. "I didn't realize idiots were invited to this party."

Knuckles slowly turned towards the voice new voice to find Sonic standing in the clearing. Behind him stood Tails, Cream (holding Cheese), and the pink hedgehog called Amy.

"Those must be the others!" Mike yelled out while Knuckles just stared.

Knuckles clinched his fist. _Nobody calls my friends idiots... but I'll have to punch him for that later. First of all..._ "I _didn't_ invite them, Sonic! They came on their own, and I've been _trying_ to get them to leave! You're not helping at all, you know!"

"I can't help it if my fans want to stay," Sonic said cockily. _If I make a good first impression,_ Sonic thought, _then that idiot will hear about my greatness and have to admit to his defeat!_

"Fans...? Why you selfish little...!" Knuckles threw a fist at Sonic, annoyed. Sonic easily jumped out of the way.

"So, who's ready for that picnic?" Sonic asked everyone in the clearing.

"We're not eating with them here!" Knuckles yelled.

"We won't bother you! A picnic sounds really nice, as long as that scary red thing isn't close!"

"_What?_" Knuckles burst out. "No, they're leaving _now_!"

"You remind me of someone..." Ruby said from atop the shrine. "Oh yes, a certain redhead who thinks he knows everything and is always 'you can't do this,' 'you can't do that.'" She obviously mocked Kevin as she spoke. Sonic laughed happily while Amy and Mike grinned. John and Paul exchanged worried looks, while Henry sighed with a slight smile.

Knuckles clinched his fist, hurt that she would say that. He didn't move.

Amy, Cream, and Tikal nervously laid out the blanket as Ruby descended the shrine steps. Amy placed the picnic basket on top and sat down, still not knowing what to do. Sonic was the next to sit down, and one by one, all of the others followed suit. All except one, who remained standing.

"Aren't you going to sit, Knuckles?" Sonic asked, staring up at the echidna.

"...I'm not hungry. Tikal, watch the Emerald." With that, Knuckles turned around and walked into the forest. The others watched, but he soon disappeared among the trees.

"I hope your friend is okay. Maybe I shouldn't've said that thing about the scary red creature..."

_That's not the only thing you should not have said..._ Tikal thought. She was angry, but she couldn't bring herself to hate any of them—they were her brother's best friends, and they really were great people. _Still, Ruby shouldn't have said that..._

"Nah, don't worry about it. Knuckles is stronger than that. Honestly, if _that_ bothered him, then, well, we wouldn't be friends." Sonic remembered how much he had called Knuckles a 'knucklehead' and made fun of him for being tricked on their first meeting. _So then what's bothering him?_ Sonic thought, worried.

_Normally he would have stayed, if just to watch the Master Emerald..._ Tails thought. He and Sonic exchanged concerned looks. Sonic nodded and they both stood up.

"We're gonna go find that Knucklehead," Sonic explained. "You guys continue eating."

"We'll be back soon," Tails said as he followed Sonic into the forest. The two ran around the island, looking for their red friend.

They found him sitting by a serene lake, his back turned to them. Sonic walked up and, without a word, sat on one side of Knuckles. Tails took his seat on the other side.

"This is a beautiful lake," Tails said.

"Yeah, you don't see anything like it on the ground nowadays," Sonic agreed.

Knuckles didn't say anything. He stared out across the lake.

"We can send them away if you want," Sonic offered. "I didn't realize it was that big of a deal."

"...What do you know?" Knuckles asked coldly. _Your best friend doesn't make fun of you like that when she thinks you're not around... I've just been trying to _help_ her..._ "Why don't you go back and eat?"

"...I'm not hungry," Sonic lied; just as he said it, he heard his stomach give a small grumble. "Are you, Tails?"

"Nope. Besides, this is much prettier."

Sonic lied down on the grass and put his hands behind his head. "Then it's settled. Sorry, Knux, you're stuck with us." Knuckles turned to stare at the blue hedgehog, who grinned.

Knuckles stared back across the lake. "Suit yourself."

"I wonder how the stars look from here..." said Tails as he leaned back and stared at the bright blue sky. Knuckles stared at him now.

_Why are they staying? Aren't they hungry? Isn't this boring?_ Knuckles looked back and forth between the two of them. Sonic's eyes were closed, and Tails stared into the sky, but both were very much alert.

A gentle breeze passed by the three boys as Knuckles finally saw it on their faces: Tails wasn't here to see the stars, and Sonic wasn't here because he was full; they were here to stick by Knuckles, to be there for him if he needed it. Knuckles smiled to himself. _Thanks, guys..._ he thought, not wanting to say it out loud. _Thanks a lot..._

Knuckles then decided what he was going to do.

----

Tim slept through first period—although Knuckles had assured them that he was okay by time for them to leave, neither Sonic nor Tails left then. They insisted on seeing the stars, just to make sure. The humans kindly took the girls home, including Tikal. It wasn't until Knuckles said that he was going home that Sonic and Tails finally left.

Hiei poked his brother with a pencil, trying to wake the sleepyhead up. Hiei stared around the class, making sure that no one had noticed Tim sleeping yet. When he turned back to Tim, Hiei grinned, knowing _exactly_ how to get Tim up. He took out a new sheet of paper and wrote on it. When he was done writing, he handed the paper to Miles and signaled for him to slip it to Tim. Miles glanced at the paper and did as he was told. He slid the paper under Tim's arm and then tapped him on the shoulder.

"What...?" Tim sleepily asked. Luckily for him, it was also too quiet for the lecturing teacher to hear. Miles pointed to the paper, and Tim glanced at it.

It took him a minute to find what was on the paper, but he found it, in his twin's handwriting. He sat up quickly, for Hiei had written the best words _ever_ to Tim: "How could you sleep through this day? Kevin's not here."

Tim grinned and sat back in his seat, quite comfortable and cheerful. _This is the _perfect_ day!_ Tim thought, staring at the empty seat in front of him.

----

"Knuckles, don't be stubborn," Tikal scolded as the two stood in front of the Master Emerald.

"I've made up my mind. You don't need to come here anymore," Knuckles told the girl. "I'll be able to watch the Master Emerald from now on."

"What about your friends? Your family?"

"I have friends _and_ family likes this."

"But... it's not the same..." Tikal said as tears stung her eyes. "You could have these same friends and family _and_ more! Don't be stupid!"

"I told you, I've made up my mind." Knuckles sat down on the stairs. "I'm not going back to being Kevin Hogosha. I am Knuckles the Echidna."


	7. The Enchanting Thief

Sorry it took me so long to update, I've been busy... as I've said, Knux has stolen two chapters... Sigh, you know, it would be very nice if some of you would review... it'd make me feel better, so I'll actually know what people think of it...

Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic, Tails, or Knuckles or anyone else from the games and/or Sonic X (thus I do not own Tim and their human forms). I do not own two scenes in here—the scene at the end of Rouge's dream is from Sonic Adventure II, and the scene in Knuckles' dream is in Sonic X. Those are all owned by SEGA and Sonic Team.

**--The Enchanting Thief--**

_"Daddy? Daddy, play with me!" a little girl of no more than five beckoned. She had been asking for hours, her blue eyes hopeful. Her naturally white hair fanned out around her face. "Daddy?"_

_"Go _away_!" her father yelled as he slapped her on the face with the back of her hand. She fell on the ground, holding her cheek. "Stop bugging me!"_

_Tears formed in the young girl's eyes. "Daddy, did I do something bad?"_

_"Yes, yes you did! Now go somewhere else!"_

_She started crying loudly. "Daddy..." she called out in the middle of her loud sobs._

_"You idiot, don't cry! Your mother will be home soon!" he said, violently picking her up and shaking her fiercely. "Shut up, girl!" The stench of alcohol reached the girl's nose, but she was too young to understand the smell._

_"Why is Daddy mad?" she asked between her loud sobs. "Daddy, put me down! Waah!" she called out as her father shook harder, not knowing what else to do._

_"I said _shut up_!" he threw the girl before he knew what he was doing. She flew out the window, shattering the glass. She missed the balcony rail by less than an inch and fell towards the ground far below. Tears flew from her eyes._

_She felt herself stop suddenly, her right arm straining above her. She blinked, the tears vanishing from her eyes as she heard a boy above say, "Are you okay?"_

_As she blinked, the scene below her suddenly changed: instead of hanging over the street below, she now hung over a pit of lava. She heard the sound of meteors shake the ground above her. Though she was now much older, she was only a little taller than she had been just five seconds ago. Wings plastered on her back flapped. Surprised, she quickly turned her head up to see who caught her, but her vision suddenly blurred._

Ruby woke up from her dream. She blinked as she stared at her room. _That was a weird dream..._ she thought as she rubbed her eyes. She stared at the time, shining brightly on the clock next to her. It was only midnight. Since she did not feel tired, she stood up. _Guess I'll go to a club or something,_ she thought. _Wait, why am I so short?_ She stared down to see that she had boots on. She frowned as she turned a lamp on with gloved hands. She walked up to her tall mirror, where she took a look at herself.

She was not human anymore—she was a bat. The fur above her mouth was white, much like her hair, but the fur below that was a dark tan, almost brown. She had huge bat ears that picked up every sound: her father laughing like a drunk manic on the telephone, the TV on, someone walking outside, crickets chirping loudly... She had blue eye shadow above her narrow green eyes. Her tank top, which started way below her neck, was pink and shaped like a heart with a white outline. The heart turned into a dark purple, maybe even black, skin-tight suit that that continued down past her boots; the outfit covered even her tail. Her long gloves were white and extended past her elbows before folding over themselves, showing to be pink on the inside. Her long, white high heel boots did the same, but they had a heart on the toe of them. Her huge bat wings, which started on a bare part of her back, were the same color as the bottom part of her suit. She flapped her wings, smiling at herself. _I kinda like this... and this outfit is nice._ An idea popped in her head. _I think this calls for a change in plans..._

----

"Kevin's out again today..." John complained after first period.

"He's sick again? He must really not be feeling well..."

"Why don't we go visit him after school?"

"Great idea!"

"Maybe a visit and some stories will help him get better!"

Ruby said nothing; she simply stared at the empty desk.

"Speaking about stories..." Henry started, making the others moan. "Listen to me! We had that picnic because of some of the things I heard."

"Yeah, too bad Kevin missed out on that."

"Well, anyway, they say that someone stole the most expensive and best guarded diamond from a museum."

"What?"

"Some guards say they saw a white and pink blur soaring out of the ceiling window."

Ruby smirked despite herself. _So now I _am_ on the news..._ she thought happily.

"Everyone in your seats!" Dr. Eggman called as soon as the bell rang. The whole class grumbled and did as they were told. Ruby listened to the lecture at first, bored. Soon enough, she let her mind take over... She thought about her adventures the night before, being a bat and stealing a lovely jewel from a museum. _Kevin would kill me if he knew..._ she thought as she glanced over at Kevin's empty desk. As her eyes found her own desk, she replayed her dream again. When she got to the end, where the scene suddenly changed, she paused, thinking. _What was that about? A pit of lava? A dark sky, filled with stars... outer space? But I wasn't even wearing a space suit._ She smiled to herself. _I guess that part was just a crazy dream._

Ruby felt a sheet of paper lightly touch her arm. She turned to see Mike handing her a sheet of paper, smiling. She took it. On it, Mike had written, "Does anyone have anything after school today?" Below Mike's words, Henry had written that he didn't. Ruby wrote her own "No" before glancing at the next member of their group. John sat two seats away from Ruby, with Kevin in between them. The only other way to get the letter to John and Paul, who sat diagonally behind John, was to go through Tim. Ruby knew for a fact that Tim would not help; _He might even tell the doctor that we're passing notes,_ she thought. She glanced at the person who sat in front of Kevin. _A goody-good. There's no way I can get it there like this..._ When Eggman's back was turned, she dared turn her head to stare at John's desk, thinking about how she could get it there. She sighed. She leaned over to Mike, handed him the paper, and whispered, "We'll have to ask John and Paul later."

"Is there a problem, Miss Abalone?" Dr. Eggman demanded, annoyed.

"If you count having an ugly teacher as a problem, then we all have one," Ruby remarked, making the whole class laugh.

Eggman was furious. "Detention after school today, Abalone!" he barked.

As soon as the doctor turned around, Ruby snatched the note from Mike's desk and slapped it on her own. She crossed out her "No" and wrote "Yes."

----

The four boys were waiting outside of the classroom when Ruby's detention ended. They walked to Kevin's house, joking around the whole way. When they reached his house, Ruby noted that only Kevin's car was anywhere to be seen. _Oh yeah, don't we have Driver's Ed this year?_ she couldn't help but think. Paul knocked on the door.

After a few more knocks, the door finally creaked open. Karen stood there, watching her brother's friends.

"Hey, Karen!" Ruby greeted. "It's been a while. How's your brother? We noticed he wasn't at school today or yesterday."

"Is he sick?"

"Can we see him?"

Karen blinked. "Huh? Oh, yes, he's sick..." she answered slowly. "I'm afraid it's... very contagious. It'd be best if you didn't see him."

Their disappointment was obvious. "I hope he gets well soon..."

"Tell him that we can't wait for him to get better."

"Oh, I know! My mom makes the _best_ soup... I'll bring some over later for him."

"So..." Ruby spoke up, "where are your parents? Wouldn't they be home since Mr. Tough Guy is actually sick?"

"They're at work," Karen said quickly. Just then, a black minivan pulled into the driveway. "Oh, looks like Mother is home now. I'll tell Kevin everything you said, you guys should get going."

"Okay. We hope to see Kevin tomorrow!" The boys started sadly walking off first, and then Ruby followed.

Karen breathed easily as Kevin's friends walked off. Luckily, her mother took her time getting out of the car. Mrs. Hogosha ran up to her daughter and pulled her in close, crying. "We can't find your brother _anywhere_," Mrs. Hogosha sobbed. "I hope he's okay..."

"He can take care of himself," Karen comforted. "I'm sure he'll find his way home soon..."

----

Karen slammed the door as she walked into her room. She pulled her watch off as she hopped on her bed. She hit the red button on the watch and immediately yelled, "You idiot!" as tears sprung to her eyes.

"Something wrong?" she heard Knuckles asked.

"Are you happy yet?"

"W-wha...?"

"Everyone's worried about you! Mother and Father went to the police when you didn't come home!"

"Look, this is my life and I'll choose what to do with it," Knuckles explained, obviously annoyed. "You can't do anything to change my mind."

"But what about your friends?"

"I have friends."

"You're being stubborn."

"I'm not being stubborn! I'm simply deciding what _I_ want to do!"

"Stubborn!"

"I am not!"

"You are too!"

"I am not! Now don't call me unless you have something _important_ to say!"

"Kevin?" Karen heard her mother call from outside of her room. The door suddenly opened, and Mrs. Hogosha stared at her daughter's angry, tear streaked face. "I'm sorry, Karen... I could've sworn I heard Kevin..."

Karen angrily threw the watch against the wall, breaking it into pieces.

----

Knuckles watched the sun go down from shrine. Watching it gave him a serene feeling. Everything on Angel Island was calm and quiet, very peaceful... very boring... Knuckles lied back, bored. He watched the clouds slowly roll by and the occasional insect hover above before continuing on its blissful journey. The Master Emerald shone brightly, making up for the vanishing light of the sun. His stomach grumbled—he was still getting used to getting food on the island. He closed his eyes.

After a few minutes, the sweet aroma of beef stew filled his nose. _That smells great... Wait, there's no beef stew here... am I imagining things?_

"Hungry?" his sister's voice rang. Knuckles opened his eyes to see Tikal standing there, holding a bowl of beef stew out.

Knuckles paused before sitting up and taking the food. "Thanks... I thought you were mad at me."

"I am mad at you," Tikal said bluntly, "but your friends asked me to give this to you. I tried my best to keep it warm on the way."

Knuckles stared past the stew. _My friends..._

"You should at least say something to Mother and Father. _In person_," she added when she saw Knuckles glance at her wrist. He ate a few more bites of the stew.

"Where's your watch?"

She sighed. "I'll have to ask Tails to make me a new one..."

"I knew you were mad at me, but _wow_, I didn't think _you_ could break Tails' watch!"

Tikal blushed, embarrassed. "I'll take the bowl and spoon back when you're done," she said, indicating that she wanted him to finish quickly.

Knuckles ate the rest of it in silence and then handed the bowl to Tikal. She walked over to the top of the stairs. "Your friends say... that they can't wait until you 'get better'." With that, she ran down the stairs and towards the edge of the island. Knuckles watched her, surprised, but didn't chase her or say anything. He lied down again and stared at the stars, thinking. Soon enough, he dozed off.

_"Wait! Give me back the Master Emerald!" Knuckles yelled as he ran after a thief. The thief wore all black, even over his ears. The thief carried the Master Emerald with rope and flew above the precious jewel with a pair of bat wings. The Master Emerald barely hovered above the ground as the thief fought to carry the heavy thing. Knuckles ran as fast as he could, determined not to let the thief get his emerald. The thief tried flying faster, already lucky have started far ahead of Knuckles by the time he had awoken._

_"You won't escape," Knuckles muttered. He jumped up and punched the largest rock near him. It exploded into large pieces, and one piece hit the thief dead on the face. The thief dropped the Master Emerald and fell into some nearby bushes._

_After sitting on the grass for a minute, the thief jumped up and jolted for the Master Emerald. The thief greedily grabbed the rope, saying, "But now I... want this, too!"_

_"Hey, you!" Knuckles barked as he walked up. "I don't know how you are... but do you have any idea what you're doing? That's the Master Emerald, which can stop the power of the Chaos Emeralds. It's extremely important!" The thief leaned on the Master Emerald, his eyes closed. His face was turned away and his hand was on his hip. "Hey, are you listening to me?"_

_"No, I'm not," the thief answered in a very feminine voice, shrugging off what Knuckles had just said. The thief ran as Knuckles' vision blurred..._

Knuckles opened his eyes to see the stars above him. He slowly reached a hand out and touched the Master Emerald, which was still next to him. However, there were some shadows on the Master Emerald... Knuckles reached a gloved hand up to touch one of the shadows. Something stuck out, off of the emerald... _Rope?_ Knuckles leapt to his feet, suddenly wide awake. "Who's there?" he demanded to the darkness. He heard someone gasp. Knuckles jumped on top of the Master Emerald and used it's light to see the thief: a white bat girl stood there, staring up at the echidna in surprise. _A woman?_ Knuckles thought, surprised. "Who are you?" Knuckles asked as the bat took a step back.

The bat clinched her fist. _I haven't thought about that... I suppose I should make a thief name later,_ she thought.

_Rouge,_ a girl's voice said in the bat's head. _You are Rouge the Bat._

_That'll do,_ the bat thought. _Thanks, whoever you are._ "I'm Rouge the Bat. Who are you?"

"Were you the one who tied the rope around the Master Emerald?"

"What does it matter to you?"

"This is _my_ emerald, and you're not getting it!"

"I don't see your name on it."

"That doesn't matter! Don't touch the Master Emerald!"

Rouge pulled at the ropes. "Get off of it!"

"Why you..." Knuckles muttered, his anger rising. He jumped off of the Master Emerald and descended on Rouge, his right fist back. At the last second, he threw his fist out. Rouge attempted to jump out of the way, but he still hit her, knocking her onto the ground below. Knuckles jumped off of the shrine and came down on her again, ready to punch. Rouge flipped herself over and beat her wings quickly. She flew out of the way. Once safe in the air, she turned around to find that the echidna had made a crater in the ground.

_That would've hit me...!_ Angry, Rouge spun herself in a circle, keeping her body stretched out. She pointed her right foot down, making what looked like a tornado. When she was satisfied when her speed, she threw herself at the echidna. He jumped out of the way as she made the crater deeper. Both of them landed on the ground and glared at each other.

"Give me the emerald and I won't have to get rid of you," Rouge said.

"Get rid of me? Ha! You couldn't do that if you tried... and as long as I'm around, _nobody_ is touching the Master Emerald."

"Funny, you were sleeping earlier. I kinda liked that better. Why don't you go back to sleep so I can take the emerald?"

"You are not taking the Emerald!" Knuckles yelled angrily.

"Oh really?" She left the ground and started flying towards the Master Emerald. Knuckles spun around and grabbed on to the side of the shrine. He quickly climbed up the side of the shrine, determined to beat her to the large jewel. She grabbed the ropes.

"Stop!" Knuckles yelled as he threw himself up to stop the bat. He hit her with his shoulder, knocking her away from the Master Emerald. She flapped her wings to keep herself in the air. She glared at Knuckles, but she knew fighting like this was pointless—she had to get better, used to her bat body.

"What's your name?" she asked.

"I'm Knuckles the Echidna, the guardian of the Master Emerald."

"I'll be back for the 'Master Emerald', Knuckles," Rouge said before flying off.

"Don't you dare think you're ever going to get it!" Knuckles yelled after her.

"You know," a voice said from behind Knuckles, "you're in for a boring time if you stay like this."

Knuckles spun around. A girl cloaked in green stood there. _The ghost...!_

"I suggest going back to your human form."

"No way."

"Why not?" the girl asked, sounding surprised.

"If I go back, then that stupid bat girl will steal the Master Emerald."

"Shouldn't you think this through a little more? What about _you_? This isn't what you want, is it?"

"Wha...? What are you talking about? Of _course_ it's what I want!"

"Don't you miss your parents? Your friends? Do you really want to condemn yourself to staying here, only seeing any friends or family when they come?"

Knuckles' eyes widened. He clinched his fist and turned away. "I've made my decision. If you didn't come here to help, then go away."

"I did come to help, but you won't listen to me." She paused, but he didn't say anything. "You have to go back to them. If you don't, you may... you may never see them again. Can you live with that?"

"...Yes."

"Then I have nothing more to say." The girl turned away and started walking down the stairs. She walked into the woods, leaving Knuckles to go back to sleep.

In the woods, she found the boy cloaked in red. "It seems like you're handling things fine on your own," he said. "Are you sure you need me? Are... you even sure this is what we should do?"

"I... don't know..."

----

"I guess he's out again today..." John pointed out as he and the other four waited for first period to start. Kevin was absent yet again.

_Another great day!_ Tim thought ecstatically.

"I was hoping he'd be better by now..."

"That must be some disease!"

Ruby sighed as she sat down in her chair. "He's strong... he'll get well soon..." _He better..._ Ruby's thoughts drifted to the Master Emerald and its guardian. _I'm also going to get that emerald..._ she thought. _I'll practice with my bat body after school... after visiting Kevin..._

"I'm going to drop that video by his house tonight... of when we went to that floating island," Henry said. "I want him to see it before any news place does."

"We'll come with ya," Mike told him. "I wanna see how Kevin's doing."

"Hopefully we'll be able to see him after school today," Paul said as the bell rung.

"Everyone in your—"

The door slammed open as one last person ran in. "I'm here!" he yelled as he threw his bag on his desk and tripped into his seat. The whole class stared in silence. He sat back, breathing heavily from his sprint. Sweat poured down his head, which he fought not to lie on his desk. His legs felt very weak from running such a long way, but he continued getting ready for class. His long hair fell in his face, so he brushed it out of the way.

Five people popped up in front of his desk, yelling "Kevin" at the top of their lungs, their own chairs knocked over. The boy stared up at his five friends through purple eyes. "Hey, guys," he greeted.

"Don't you just 'hey guys' us! How're ya feeling?"

"We're glad to see that you're better!"

"You are better, right?"

"In your seats!" Eggman yelled, but Kevin's friends drowned him out.

"We were all so worried about you!"

"We stopped by your house yesterday, but your sister said you were very sick."

"Contagious!"

_Oh yeah... I still need see my family... Guess I'll do that after school,_ Kevin thought. He had come straight from Angel Island, only running in and out of his house for his book bag.

"Go to your seats now!"

"Did you get the beef stew?"

"I'm fine, guys, really," Kevin assured them, surprised. He hadn't expected this much attention.

"Get in your seats this instant!" Dr. Eggman boomed. The five friends stared at their teacher before turning back to Kevin.

"You're not going to get sick again, are you?"

"You better not."

"Yeah, especially not for that long."

Ruby giggled. Kevin stared at her, confused. "What is it...?"

Ruby giggled more. "You," she said.

"Huh?"

"You should wear your hair down more often," she said. "It looks good."

Kevin blushed widely. He quickly pulled a rubber band out of his book bag and tied his hair up in its usual ponytail.

"Get to your seats before I give you all detention!" Eggman yelled. The five grumbled and, with their apologizes to Kevin, did as they were told. "And you, Mr. Hogosha... you are tardy, _and_ you get a detention for being a disruption to the class."

"What?"

"That's not fair!"

"That was our fault!"

Kevin smiled to himself. "All right," he said to Eggman. "It's okay, you guys. I'm just glad... to be back." Kevin spun around in his chair to face Tim, who was glaring; Tim felt his perfect day ruined. "Don't think that just because I was out you're going to beat me in anything. Today I'm winning."

Tim grinned. "You're on."


	8. The Shadow of a Hedgehog

Finally posting another one! x.x' I haven't been able to post that much, I've been so busy... You've caught up to me! I'm only in the middle of writing chapter nine! So it's going to be slower between posting, but I'm trying to get it done as I can...

Thank you, Kat and Starry-chan, for reviewing! Your reviews made me happy! o.o I never knew there were other Sonic-reincarnated stories... although I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Well, again, thank you both very very much! I'm glad you like the story! I hope you continue to enjoy it with the chapters to come!

Also, the rating on violence on this site is vague... I don't really know if this story should be rated 'T' or 'M' with this chapter... so yeah, warning on the violence in this chapter... if you believe that it should be bumped up, please let me know quickly. o.o' (I bumped it back down because I don't think anyone could read it when I had it set at 'M'...)

Disclaimer: Same as always. I do not own Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, or anyone else from Sonic X or the Sonic games, including the human forms. They are owned by Sonic Team and SEGA. I also do not own the scene of Maria dying... that's from Shadow the Hedgehog game, owned by Sonic Team.

Please enjoy the story!

**--The Shadow of a Hedgehog--**

"Tim," Hiei said as he poked his head into Tim's room, "did you hop on my computer without asking again?"

Timothy stared at his brother like a deer caught in headlights. "W-what are you talking about? Why would I do that? I have my own computer."

"The log in password. _Now_," demanded Hiei.

Tim grinned. "But it's no fun if you don't guess."

Hiei turned and started walking out.

"Where are you going?" Tim asked.

"To ask Mom if I can cook dinner tonight," Hiei answered as he continued walking.

_Oh NO!_ Tim thought. "Wait! I'll tell you the password! Come back, dear brother!"

Hiei popped back in the room. "What is it?"

"It's SonictheHedgehog! One word! 'S' and 'H' capitalized!"

"Thanks," Hiei said as he ducked out.

"Wait!" Tim called making Hiei stop. "You're not going to cook dinner tonight, right?"

"It's not _that_ bad, is it?"

"Hiei, _nothing_ you cook is edible. You could heat up a Pop-Tart for someone and they'd die from food poisoning."

"You're not much better," Hiei pointed out. "I won't cook dinner. Just don't change my password again."

"I won't change it, I promise," Tim said, a cocky grin on his face. Behind his back, he crossed his fingers. Hiei shook his head as he walked away, knowing Tim better than that.

Hiei plopped down in his chair and signed on to his computer. The screen went black as it started loading, but there was something in that darkness... He stared, trying to make out the figure he saw in the black screen. A reflection. A reflection of a girl with blonde hair... Hiei spun around, ready to demand what she was doing there, but there was no one in the room. When he turned back to his computer, it had loaded. The reflection was gone.

----

The bell rang to end school. Tim stretched in his desk before standing up. "Yo, bro, wanna hit the candy shop?"

"Did I hear candy?" Emily asked. "Can I come, too?"

"Yeah, me, too!" Sam agreed. "Alice! You're coming, right?"

"That'd be nice... thank you."

_Girls, they don't even wait to see what _I_ think of that!_ Tim thought, annoyed. "Hey, Miles, you wanna come?"

"Yes!"

The group walked out of the room after most of the class, leaving only Kevin still sitting in his desk. Tim couldn't resist; he lingered around so he was the last one out the door. When reached to the door, he put his hand on the frame, threw his head back, and said, "Hey, Tardy-boy, have fun at detention!"

Kevin glanced at Tim and quickly came up with a remark: "Yeah, and you have fun at the candy shop with your _girlfriend_."

Tim scowled and marched out the door. The scowl must've still been on Tim's face when he was walking with his friends, because Emily hung back to ask, "Is something wrong?"

"Huh? No, nothing," Tim answered.

"All right!" Emily happily clung onto his arm.

_Now something's wrong..._ Tim thought, annoyed.

"We're here!" Sam yelled as loud as she could as she opened the door to the candy store. The group strolled in, all eyes on them. They leisurely walked up to the counter and each ordered their favorite candy. They chose a table and sat down, mainly to talk before going home. On one side of the table sat Miles, Tim, and Emily. Across from them sat Sam, Alice, and Hiei. The six laughed and talked about various things.

Alice stared at the twins, thinking. "Hey, how come one of you has and English name and the other has a Japanese name?"

"Our mom's part Japanese," Tim explained. "We were originally going to both have English names, but... well, Mom saw Hiei and she got a burst of inspiration!"

"'Hiei' means 'flying shadow'," Hiei explained.

"Wow, that's so cool!"

"The name really fits you."

Hiei smirked and sat back as he finished his ice cream. Sam tore off a bite of her Crunch bar before bringing up the new topic: "I heard Kevin's friends bragging about how they had a picnic with those hedgehogs and other creatures. That's so not fair! I want a picnic with them!"

"Oh... really...?" Tim said, nervous. _Oh yeah... I guess I owe my friends one for that... at least Kevin wasn't there..._

"If they went to that island and have a picnic with them, then maybe these creatures aren't so bad after all," Sam continued.

"Maybe they are," interrupted Hiei. "Maybe that's why they had a picnic with _that_ group."

_...Okay, so he proves a good point... but we are _not_ bad!_ Tim thought. "Or _maybe_ they were just being kind since those people went all that way."

"All what way?" Alice asked.

Tim mentally kicked himself. _I need to pay attention better... okay, what's a good excuse..._

"I heard them say that they went to the floating island," Miles spoke up. Tim, feeling very relieved, quickly agreed with his best friend.

"Then we should go to the floating island."

"NO!" Tim and Miles yelled.

"Uh... that would be dangerous..." Miles said.

"And we don't have any way of getting there..." Tim agreed.

"And it's a waste of time," Hiei added.

"So all the boys are against it. _Ironic,_" Sam said. "What do you think, girls?"

_Sonic wouldn't be happy if I agreed..._ Emily thought. _...Wait a minute! I like Tim, _not_ Sonic!_ "Let's go!" Emily said, just to spite Sonic... and herself.

"It would be nice," Alice agreed.

"Boys vs. girls! Wanna flip a coin?" offered Sam.

"But... how are you planning on getting there?" Miles asked.

Sam paused, at a complete loss.

Everyone was finished... everyone except one person. Tim caught his chance to change the subject: "Hey Miles, you gonna finish that or can I have some?"

Miles quickly pulled his mint patty away from everyone else. "No!" he said, more forcefully than the girl's would've expected. Tim grinned; he knew Miles was savoring the candy.

"Aww, come on, I'm still hungry," Tim complained jokingly.

"Only if I get half of your next chilidog," Miles said, knowing Tim wouldn't go for that.

Tim paused. He _loved_ his chilidogs. But he also wanted to see Miles' reaction... "Sure!"

Miles stared, awe struck. In fact, the whole table was quietly staring at Tim, wondering if he had gone crazy.

"...Who are you and what have you done with Timothy Parker?" Sam asked, appalled.

Tim laughed; the reaction was so much better than he imagined. "I'm just joking, I'm just joking... Though some of that minty stuff would be good," Tim said, not done with his fun yet. He reached over to grab the candy, but Miles immediately stuffed it in his mouth. Tim laughed, Hiei smirked, and the girls stared in amazement.

"Isn't that... a lot of mint?" Emily asked, stunned.

Miles tried saying something, but they couldn't understand him.

"Translation: Nope, this is great," Tim explained, laughing. "Sorry about that, Miles... it was just too good to pass up." Miles smiled and held a thumbs-up to show that he understood.

"Timothy! Hiei!" a voice rang through the air. Everyone in the group turned to the voice to find Mrs. Parker waving. Tim folded his arms and put his head down in them, chanting, "I'm not here, I'm not here, I'm not here..."

Mrs. Parker strolled over, where she eagerly greeted her sons' friends. "Since I found you two, how about a treat on the way home? Who wants chilidogs?"

"I'm not h—" Tim stopped, mid-sentence, bringing his head up. "_I'm here!_" he yelled as loud as he could; Miles was convinced people a mile away heard Tim.

"Do you kids want to come with?" Mrs. Parker kindly asked her boys' friends. All of them except Emily politely turned her down. Miles, not wanting to eat anything else for a while, decided to go to the workshop; Sam and Alice wanted to do their homework and then devise a way of meeting the creatures they had heard so much about. Those three walked their separate ways, while Tim, Hiei, and Emily followed Mrs. Parker to her car. They happily hopped in (Tim calling shotgun on the front seat) and started driving to a fast food place. Mrs. Parker and Emily promptly engaged in conversation, being _way_ too loud for either of the boys to talk. The two ladies, however, knew each other quite well and loved talking.

The car rolled up to a four-way stopped and came to a halt. Mrs. Parker was the first to stop and first to go, but a car to their left didn't see his stop sign.

"_Mom look out!_"

"Ahhh!"

Mrs. Parker tried speeding up, since it was too late to slow down. The car also swerved and barely missed them. The Parkers and Emily pulled over to breathe easily, scared by that experience.

"Are you kids okay?" Mrs. Parker asked. "Why don't we walk the rest of the way? It's not far now."

"Good idea," Tim said as he opened his door. The other three also got out of the car, and together they began walking to the fast food place.

----

"Hey boys," Mrs. Parker called later that day, "I need to go to the bank, either of you want to come with?"

"No," the boys chorused.

"Not even for some ice cream? It gets quite lonely there."

Hiei ambled out of his room. "All right, but only because there's nothing better to do."

Tim soon ran out, his shoes only half on. "Did I hear ice cream?"

Mrs. Parker smiled; she loved her two sons very much and was ecstatic when they went places with her. "Then let's go. Oh! You did finish your homework, didn't you?"

Tim stalled. "Uhh... yes!"

"I did, Tim didn't."

"Hiei!"

"Do you want to be up until one again working on it?"

Mrs. Parker laughed at the teenagers. "Don't worry, Tim, I'll bring you ice cream for the thought."

Tim cheered as he hurried back to his room.

"Don't I get free ice cream?" Hiei asked.

"You get yours for coming with me!"

Hiei scowled, but he obediently followed his mother out to the car. She drove to the bank, this time with no incident.

Inside the bank, empty desks were place all around for busier days. A long counter with many dividers greeted the guests today. The floor, a nice green carpet, held not a spot of stain or speckle of dirt. The windows shone brightly with the rays of the sun beating inside. From the ceiling dangled a huge crystal chandler, and the crystals reflected rainbows on the ground that bright day. The line was lengthy, but it moved surprisingly fast. As the two waited in line, Mrs. Parker quickly started up a conversation, asking her son about _everything_ in his life.

_Why did I agree to this...?_ Hiei thought, annoyed.

"Have you thought about what you're going to do in college yet?"

"...That's still a long time away."

"It'll creep up on you before you know it, and neither you nor Tim have any clue on what you want to be when you grow up. You don't even have young ladies your interested in! Ooh, listen to me! You two really have grown up way too fast!"

"Fast? What are you talking about? It's been slow."

"Not when you're as old as I am. Fifteen years isn't much time at all... I really wish it _was_ a lot, though..." Mrs. Parker smiled and put her hand on Hiei's shoulder, but Hiei quickly pulled away.

"_Mom_," he complained, now vexed.

Mrs. Parker sighed. "Like I said, you two are growing up way too fast!" She then smiled. "Even so, I'm anxious to see what the future holds for you two."

Three people walked into the bank. One of them walked over to a security guard, one of them got in line, and the third skipped the line and walked all the way up to the counter.

"Sir, you have to wait in line like everyone else. Sir?" Screams broke through the place as the three newcomers revealed their guns. One held the police officer at gunpoint, while another held a bank clerk the same way. The third walked around the room, pointing the gun all around the room. The visitors ran to hide behind the empty desks in the room. Mrs. Parker dragged her son over to a far desk.

"Nobody move!" the third man yelled. I want everyone to put their hands up, slowly! Don't try calling for help!"

Mrs. Parker stuffed Hiei under the desk before she put her hands up. However, the _thud_ caused from Hiei hitting the back of the desk drew the attention of the bandits. The free moving one ran over, his gun pointed at Mrs. Parker. "What'd'ya think your doin'?"

"I'm sorry, I accidentally hit the desk," Hiei heard his mother answer.

"Are you hiding something?"

"No."

"You tried to contact someone, didn't you?"

"No, I didn't!"

Hiei tried to move to show that it was just him, so they would leave his mother alone. However, Mrs. Parker quickly kicked him back into the desk.

"You _are_ hiding something!"

"No I'm not!"

Two sounds filled Hiei's ears at the same time, and he thought he'd never hear anything else ever again: the sound of gun shots and the sound of his mother screaming. From his spot under the desk, he saw his mother falling backwards, blood spilling from her wounds. Or was it his mother? Maybe it was a girl, a girl with blonde hair, a girl in a blue dress, a girl named Maria...

In his mind, Hiei couldn't tell where he was anymore. One second he was under the desk in the bank, and the next he was running down a long hallway, the girl named Maria running behind him. She stopped, turned around. The soldiers came through the door, stopped. They aimed their guns at her. She reached for the boy one last time... Hiei stared at his mother's body in the bank again. _"I'm anxious to see what the future holds for you two..."_ he heard his mother's voice say in his head. _This... this can't be happening..._

The bandit gracelessly bumped into the desk, knocking a small mirror off of it. The mirror hit the ground and shattered, causing the remains fly up in the air. The boy below the desk stared at the falling shards through wide eyes only to find that he wasn't Hiei Parker anymore; he was a black hedgehog. Red streaks ran on top of his black spikes. Below his crimson eyes, dark tan fur covered his mouth and cheeks. He had a spot of white fur on his chest. Even from the front, he could see two black spikes on his back, plus his black tail. His arms and legs were also black, but a streak of red started near the end on all of his limbs and continued down past his gloves and shoes. His gloves were white and above each of them was a ring around the wrist. Attacked to the rings were small, red cloths that hung around his arms. Above his shoes were the same rings and cloths, except half of these cloths were black. His shoes looked to be a special design; they were mainly white with a red outline. The back part of each shoe was black, and on the bottom of his shoes looked to be holes surrounded by yellow.

The black hedgehog glanced at Mrs. Parker again and anger welled up inside him. He curled up and started spinning in a rapid ball. He thrust himself up through the desk, breaking the arm of the bandit who had his arm over the desk. He attacked the two other bandits while in the same ball before they had a chance to know what hit them. With those two safely out of the way, he walked up to the one with the broken arm, the one who had killed his mother. He fiercely grabbed the trembling man's shirt. In a voice even more menacing than the bandit had ever heard before in his life, the black hedgehog said, "I'm going to make you pay for what you did."

----

_If only I had been there._ That was all he could think when he and his father heard the news. Tim gently closed the door to his room, leaning on it for support. _If only I had been there... then Mom..._ Tim stared at his desolate blue floor. It was so hard to believe... Everything seemed so empty now that his mother wouldn't come back... A tear pushed its way out of Tim's eye and onto his cheek, where he quickly rubbed it away.

_Where's... where's Hiei?_ Tim wondered, his own thoughts feeling distant and quiet to him. _The police never said anything about him... Is he okay?_ Worry soon crept up Tim's throat as he thought about where his brother could be. He clinched his fist and decided that he would have to find his twin. _I can't let anything happen to him, too..._ Wiping some more stubborn tears away, Tim turned into Sonic the Hedgehog and slowly climbed down from his second-story window. He then set off to find his brother.

Sonic ran through the streets, looking for Hiei._ Come on, Hiei, where are you..._ he thought as he stared at all of the faces around him. He never noticed how many people there were before... or how even among so many, he could be so lonely...

A sudden pain struck at his back, bending him violently, as if someone had thrown everything they had into that one blow. Sonic slammed through a window and hit a wall before falling. Screams filled his ears as he tried to pick himself up and look around with blurred vision, aching pain throbbing through his body. He blinked to find that there was still wetness in his eyes causing the blurriness; annoyed, he rubbed it away and blinked again. He took a look around to find himself in a lobby, humans staring at him, petrified.

A figure walked through the broken window, ignoring the broken pieces of glass. Sonic soon stood face-to-face with an irate black hedgehog. The other hedgehog glared at Sonic.

"Everyone calls you some sort of 'hero'," the black hedgehog said, his voice as cold as ice. "...You don't save anyone. You're just a self-absorbed weakling."

"What do you know?" Sonic demanded, fuming. "Who _are_ you?"

_"Shadow..."_ a distant voice called in the black hedgehog's head.

"...I'm Shadow. Shadow the Hedgehog."

"Fitting. If you want to join us, talk to Tails. I have some stuff I have to do..." Sonic brushed by Shadow, extremely annoyed with that painful delay. Shadow, however, was not finished yet. He punched Sonic as hard as he could, sending the blue mammal back a few paces.

"Is that how you want to play it? All right, you asked for it!" Sonic declared as he charged in and punched at Shadow. The dark beast easily dodged and countered with a kick. Sonic jumped back and spun in a ball, attacking his enemy with his infamous homing attack; Shadow quickly jumped back and did the same. The two balls charged at each other, and upon contact, they unraveled and threw each other back. They hit opposite walls at the same time. Pieces of ceiling began falling as they fought, and screaming citizens charged for the door, terrified. The angry creatures charged at each other over and over again, throwing many punches and kicks in an attempt to beat the other one.

The two simultaneously broke out in a run, charging out the window and through the city. They ran as fast as they could, kicking or punching at the other one when they could. They glared at each other as they ran, knocking people down and bolting past honking cars. Sonic threw a kick, Shadow threw a punch. And on it went as they ran.

Then it happened: Shadow ran into a wall. Sonic stared back, surprised, as he left the black hedgehog behind. "Wow, he must be even worse than _me_ at—"—just then, Sonic hit a wall as well—"—this..."

Sonic clung to the wall as his eyes sagged. Before he knew it, he was asleep against the wall, exhausted from that day's mental and physical strain.

----

Sonic slowly opened his eyes to find himself staring at a white ceiling. Assuming he was home, he tiredly closed his eyes again, completely forgetting about everything that had happened in his tired state. He pulled the warm covers up around himself as he rolled over in the bed, towards the red wall next to him. Light shined on him, peeking through the darkness covering his closed eyes. He pulled the covers up more, trying desperately to hide the light.

"Are you awake?" a voice asked when Sonic was almost back asleep. Sonic groaned tiredly. He barely heard a door close, as if the other person had closed it as softly as possible. The sweet aroma of pork and mashed potatoes filled his nose. "I brought you some food." Sonic listened to the footsteps as the kind person walked over and the smell grew stronger. He heard the plate gently land on a table nearby. "Sonic?"

"Hmm?" Sonic asked, barely awake.

"Are you okay? You're not sick, are you? Should I call for Tails?"

"Sure, whatever..." Something hit Sonic. "Wait, _Tails_?" Sonic bolted up and stared at the other person in the room: Knuckles the Echidna leaned against a red wall.

Knuckles smirked. "It's about time you woke up, sleepy head. It's a good thing I found you... what happened to you, anyway?"

Sonic pulled his feet out from under the dark red blanket and sat facing the small table next to him. He stared around the room, for some reason not wanting to think about whatever it was that had happened to him.

The room was covered with red walls and a darker red carpet. The bed was white with a dark red cover that had an intricate pattern in a lighter red covering it. The pillow looked like a copy of the blankets. A large, black TV with its own gaming system sat opposite the bed, perfect for watching while in the bed. A tiny couch gave extra seating for the TV at the foot of the bed. Next to the TV was a wooden desk with a computer and a phone on top of it. Schoolwork covered part of the large desk. An orange trashcan rested next to the desk. Trophies and an animal calendar covered that same wall. On the next wall was the closet, its white door open; the inside was rather large, but with little shirts hung up, so instead a medium sized dresser took up space inside the closet. On the last wall was where the outside door and wooden bookcase were placed. There were three bookcases, all covered with books, DVDs, or games. On the same wall, directly next to the bed, was a nightstand with a radio and a clock. Sonic glanced back at his echidna friend. "Where is this...?" he asked without thinking.

"My room," Knuckles answered. He leaned against the wall next to the closet door, directly across from the bed Sonic laid in. "Eat up, it was hard making up an excuse to bring that up here at this hour."

Sonic glanced at the clock to find that it was two o'clock in the evening. Sonic grabbed the knife and fork and greedily started eating, wondering why he was so hungry. With a full mouth, he said, "Your parents don't know either, huh—" Sonic suddenly stopped as the events from before flooded into his mind, thrusting a dagger through his heart and turning it violently. He stared down at the bed—no, past the bed and the floor—as he thought about it. Knuckles quietly observed this odd behavior.

"Did something happen?"

"...I guess you could say that," Sonic said, not ready to tell anyone about his mother yet. "I met another hedgehog... how long have I been here?"

"You've been asleep for a day. Tails, Amy, and Cream came to visit while you were asleep. They're coming back over soon."

_I need to go soon,_ Sonic thought, not wanting to face any of them right then. As he slowly ate, his thoughts wandered. _Wait, I never found Hiei...! Is he okay?_ "Knuckles! Can I use your phone?"

"Go right ahead."

Sonic rushed over in a flash to the phone and quickly dialed his number. He waited impatiently as it rang. Soon enough, he heard his father's voice over the phone.

"Dad!"

"Timothy! Are you okay? Where are you? What happened? We've been so worried about you...!"

"I'm fine, I'm at a friend's house. Sorry I didn't call sooner."

"All right, but come home soon, Timothy. Hiei's here."

Sonic breathed easily. "Good, I'm glad. I'll be home as soon as possible, then." Sonic said his good-byes and hung up. Knuckles watched curiously, but he still couldn't figure out what was troubling Sonic.

"You said something about a black hedgehog...?" Knuckles asked.

"Yeah. Shadow was his name... He attacked me."

"Another violent one, eh?"

"Funny _you_ should be saying that..."

Knuckles shook his head, remembering how violent he had been during their first meeting. "That's not what I'm talking about. I met a bat a few days ago... that little thief better not try to get the Master Emerald when I'm not there...!"

"Let me guess, is his name 'Wings' or something?" Sonic asked sarcastically.

Knuckles grinned, amused and happy to hear Sonic make a joke after the serious expressions. "No. The bat's a girl named Rouge. Close enough, though."

"Ooh. You never said it was a _girl_. I could've gotten it if you had told me that much." Sonic tried his best to lighten up the conversation so that none of his friends would worry—the less questions they asked, the better. He finished his food quickly and then said his good-bye to Knuckles.

"You're not going to wait for the others?"

"Naw, I told Dad I'd be home soon. Say hi to them for me, and tell them I'll see them later! Bye!" Sonic turned and quickly walked away; sometimes it was hard to hold a smile when all he could think about were lost memories... memories that he could now never get back...

----

u.u It was hard making such a sad chapter... Sad just isn't Sonic's style... but it had to be done. So I hoped you enjoyed it! I'll post the next chapter after I complete it!

Good luck!

Sonic Triple Kingdom

-Ayame


	9. Training

All right! Chapter nine! Thank you very, very much for reading and commenting, Starry-chan, AGodofIrony, and Melody's last song! Your reviews made me very happy and try to update as soon as possible! I hope you continue to enjoy it! Also, Thank you, Starry-chan, for allowing me to use that idea I got from our conversations! (-coughwatchTikalcough-)

Also, I would like some suggestions for couples... tell me some of your favorite Sonic couples! Put Sonic and friends with some of my OCs! Have fun, and tell me what you wanna see... I'll look at them, consider them, and decide what I want... I want to try and play around with this love thing some... I want a love _shape_ when I'm done. XD' Those are always fun... However, please **do not** suggest shonenai or shojoai. I do not like any of those, especially with the Sonic characters. Other not-possible couples are Knux and Tikal (they're brother and sister!) and Tails and Cream (same!). But besides those... have fun with suggestions! I look forward to reading all of your suggestions and hopefully putting a few in as at least one-sided things! (Note: not all suggestions will be put in the story; some just won't fit with others. I am sorry if I am not able to put your favorite couple in.)

I think that's about it. Enjoy the story!

Disclaimer: Same as always. I do not own Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, or any of the characters from Sonic X or the Sonic games, which includes their human forms. They are owned by Sonic Team and SEGA.

**--Training--**

Tim tapped the desk, waiting for school to finish for the day. January had just ended, and with it, most of Tim's pain—it had been weeks since his mother died, and luckily for him, with no mishaps.

Miles, however, was not happy about this silence. _Dr. Eggman must be planning something,_ he thought, _or he wouldn't have been quiet for so long..._

"One more thing before you go," Eggman said, standing up at the front. He turned on the overhead that stood in the center of all of the desks and put up some pictures—pictures of Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Tikal, Cream, and Amy. "These six... they have a _human_ form."

_How'd he know?_ thought Tim, alarmed.

_This isn't good..._

_But how...? Everyone's thought we came from Angel Island...!_

_Oh no! What if he finds out I'm one of them? _Amy touched her pink hair and sighed. _Not like it's that hard..._

"If you figure out who they are and tell me, you will be _handsomely_ rewarded..." Eggman grinned evilly. The bell then rang. "Class dismissed."

Timothy jumped up. _All right! To the workshop!_ he thought eagerly. _And I won't let Eggman know who I am until we find out what he's up to..._ He then stared back at his brother, who continued sitting. _Oh yeah, I forgot... he got a detention for being tardy..._ "See ya later, bro," Tim said, waving as he hurried out the door. Hiei waved back without a word as everyone else also cleared the room, everyone except Dr. Eggman.

Dr. Eggman stood up from his small desk after the other students were well gone and walked over to the door. He closed it and then walked back over to his desk, where he silently started shuffling through papers. Hiei stood up and walked over to the desk.

"You wanted to see me, Doctor?" Hiei asked, his voice cold.

Eggman nodded. "Yes. It's only a matter of time until we find out who they are now... but more importantly, you said you found a new member for our group?"

"I believe so." Hiei rummaged through his backpack until he pulled out some pictures. He thrust the pictures on Eggman's desk, who quickly picked them up and started examining them.

"I can barely see anything..."

"Those were the best I could get. He broke into the jewelry store my father works at. It's said he's been stealing many things without leaving a trace—only a 'thank you' card."

"Hm? Are those... bat wings?"

"I noticed that as well."

"Good, good... let's find out if this person wants to join our little group... shall we?"

"Where will he strike next?"

"There has to be a pattern. See what you can find on him... we'll find out where he's going next and meet up with him."

----

Sonic and Cheese were already outside warming up by the time Tails, Knuckles, Amy, and Tikal arrived.

"Hey guys," Sonic greeted. "Is Cream not coming?"

"She is, but she's still at school," Tails explained.

"Then she can join in when she gets here," said Knuckles. He punched his right fist into his left hand. "Let's get training started!"

"What's first on the list?" Amy asked, summoning a hammer. The others stared at her. "...What?"

"Where'd that hammer come from...?"

Amy stared at it. "Oh, this?"

"Yes that! Hammers just don't appear all of the sudden!" Knuckles yelled.

"I have an unlimited supply of hammers!" Amy explained cheerfully. "They're in my hammerspace!"

"Hammer...space...?" The other four exchanged confused looks.

"Well what do _you_ do with your items in these forms?"

"Carry them?" suggested Sonic.

"You _could_ just put them in your hammerspace."

Sonic turned away, pulling Tails and Knuckles with him. He then whispered, "Hey, are all girls this wacko?"

Amy fumed. She raised her hammer up above the unsuspecting boys' heads. "Sooonnniiiiccccc!" she called menacingly. Sonic and his best friends turned around to see Amy standing there, her hammer high above her head and her face angry.

"Eh heh heh..." Sonic quickly pointed to Knuckles, who immediately started freaking out.

"Hey, don't point at me! I didn't say anything!"

Amy started bringing her hammer down on poor Sonic, who quickly bolted away. He ran until he stood in front of the forest, far away from Amy.

"Come back here, Sonic!" Amy yelled angrily. She ran after him and he continued running away, scared of the pink hedgehog's wrath.

Tikal smiled and turned to the others. "Shall we start training as well?"

"As long as training isn't like _that_..." Knuckles muttered, pointing to Amy chasing after the frightened Sonic. Tikal giggled and shook her head.

Tails smiled as well. "Then lets get started! The first exercise is running..."

----

Tim trudged home that night, exhausted but happy. He had finally succeeded in running through the forest without running into anything. In fact, all of them were able to get used to their new speeds. _Tomorrow's fighting..._ Tim thought as he fell into his blue bed. He hugged the comfortable pillow, too tired to pull the blankets up around himself. _If we do good at that, then we just have one more training session..._ Tim yawned. _Good... I don't think I can... work... that much... for long..._ He fell asleep.

Hiei peeked in the room. _Tim's asleep,_ he thought. He snuck downstairs to check on his father only to find that he, too, was asleep. Hiei crept out the back door and into the night, where he quickly changed to his hedgehog form.

Shadow raced down the streets, knowing exactly where he was going. He raced through the buildings at an amazing speed—he, too, had been practicing recently. He sprinted up the side of a large building and stopped on the roof, where Dr. Eggman already waited in his hovercraft.

"Are you sure he will strike at this museum?" asked Shadow.

"Positive. He's in there now."

"Interesting..." Shadow walked over to a glass ceiling only to find that a perfect circle had already been cut in it. He glanced down into the darkness, trying to see something. All he could see were sudden flashes of movement before the thief faded into the darkness again. Shadow stood back and nodded to Eggman, who hovered his finger over a button. The two waited.

Soon enough, the thief burst out of his hole, flying with a huge ancient gem in hand. Eggman's finger slammed down the button and a net flew out of his machine. The net wrapped around the thief, entangling him; he gave out a girlish yelp as he struggled to get free.

"Now now, calm down. We're not here to turn you in..." Eggman explained as he pulled the net in. "We were actually wondering if you would be welling to join us."

The bat turned to stare at the two, surprise in his green eyes.

"We're against that _annoying_ Sonic and his pesky friends... but there are so many of them compared to us."

"All right, under two conditions," said the bat in a girl's voice.

Eggman and Shadow exchanged bewildered looks. _The bat's a girl?_ they thought, completely taken aback.

"One, I get _plenty_ of jewels... the Master Emerald is _mine_."

Eggman smirked. "I take it you've already met the echidnas, then?"

"Unfortunately."

"What's your other condition?" Shadow asked impatiently.

The bat thought about this before shaking her head. "No, never mind. That one will be enough."

"Then it's a deal!" Eggman declared. "Why don't you come with us so you can get a proper introduction?"

"I kinda don't have a choice while I'm stuck in this net, now do I?" she said sarcastically.

_Oh yeah..._ thought Eggman. He pressed a button to release the net. The bat struggled to get out, losing her mask as she did so. Neither Eggman nor Shadow bothered helping her—they just watched and waited until the thief was free.

"Some gentlemen you are..." the thief muttered dryly.

----

Sonic jumped on a tree and then bolted away from it, through the forest, his target set.

"Don't think you're hitting me with that little trick, Sonic!" Knuckles moved out of the way, but Sonic just threw a hand down and attempted to kick the echidna. Taken off guard, Knuckles could not dodge in time. Sonic knocked him down.

"Point!" Cream called out.

Knuckles clinched his fist angrily.

"That's two for Sonic and two for Knuckles," said Tikal. "The next person to get a point goes to the next round."

"Who am I fighting next?" Sonic asked.

"Ha! Don't think you're going to win this, Sonic!"

Tikal pointed behind her. "One of those two."

There, behind Tikal, was nothing as Sonic and Knuckles stared. They looked at each other before turning their attention back to where Tikal pointed. Suddenly, a pink blur hit the ground. Amy angrily picked herself up, summoning a hammer. She stared up at the sky as she picked herself up. "Come back down here, Tails! I'm going to get you for that!"

Tikal wrote something down. "That's Tails' second point, and Amy has one."

Amy ferociously threw three hammers up through the trees, bringing whole branches down. Sonic and Knuckles watched in awe.

"...I hope Tails wins," said Sonic.

"I'm not sure if I want that. Anyone who can beat that _monster_ is hard as well!" Knuckles pointed out. Sonic cringed.

"Hey, how about no finals?"

"Sorry, you need to practice."

_Bang!_ Tails slammed into a tree, knocking it down.

"Who called me a monster?" Amy yelled, her fiery eyes darting around to meet every face.

"Oww... Don't take that out on _me_, Amy," begged Tails, who slowly stood up.

"Two to two."

Tails charged in, hovering above the ground with his two tails spinning wildly in the wind. He punched Amy, who stumped back. She angrily threw her hammer into the tree beside her, knocking it down. She then threw that same hammer at Tails, who stood a good distance away from the furious hedgehog. He used his tails for defense, but soon found himself being pelted with hammers. He took to the air, trying to escape. A hammer hit Tails square on, knocking him down to the ground.

"Okay, that's it!" Tikal called. Amy summoned another hammer and raised it above her head. Tikal walked over and grabbed the hammer. "Calm down, Amy, you won. You're up against either Sonic or Knuckles next, which ever of them wins this last point."

The pink hedgehog's eyes gleamed as she turned to the other two boys. "Which one of you called me a monster?"

Sonic and Knuckles promptly pointed at the other one, terrified.

"Who ever wins goes up against Miss Amy!" Cream announced. "Get ready for your last match."

The opponents stared at each other, neither wanting to win anymore.

"Ready... Set... Start!" Cream called out, and the fight began. However, neither of the boys moved for a minute—they waited to see what the other would do.

Knuckles hesitantly threw out a punch, which Sonic didn't even attempt to dodge; Knuckles quickly pulled back at the last minute so as not to win the match. The two glared at each other, not knowing what to do.

Angry that the two boys were stalling so much, Amy rose up her hammer. "Start the match, or I'll go ahead and declare _both_ of you my enemies!"

"Urk!" the boys didn't hesitate any longer—they both charged in and started throwing half-witted blows. Even if they blows hit, they weren't enough to throw the other to the ground. They hit each other with almost every blow, since dodging was out of the question. Both boys quickly gathered bruises.

"I'd say they get an 'A' in endurance," joked Tails.

"Mr. Sonic! Mr. Knuckles! Be careful!" Cream called out, worried. Cheese, who she held, also yelled out his warnings. As Knuckles punched Sonic, the rabbit and chao duo yelped and quickly covered their eyes from the violence.

Sonic struck Knuckles with a kick only to see a cocky grin plastered across the echidna's face. Knuckles threw himself back with the kick, falling to the ground on purpose.

"Point!" Tikal called out, since Cream no longer watched. "Sonic is the winner."

"Wait, that's not fair!" complained Sonic.

"Huh? Why are _you_ complaining?"

"Knuckles faked that defeat!"

"Part of fighting is to obtain a desired result with any method," Knuckles explained with a smug look on his face.

"He has a good point..." agreed Tails.

"Then he should win!"

"No, I think he should get his 'desired result' since he worked so hard for it," concluded the fox. "What do you want, Knuckles?"

"I want Sonic to win."

"This is _so_ not fair..." Sonic glanced around the group, searching for another method of escape. He thought he found it: "Hey, what about Cream and Tikal?"

"We're not fighters," Tikal answered, shooting Sonic's idea down. "However, we did practice a little earlier in case we have to fight."

"What, do you not want to fight me?" Amy taunted angrily.

"Uh, it's not that, Amy... it's just... I-it's just, I don't wanna hurt you..." Sonic fibbed, backing up nervously as he did so.

Amy saw right through him: "LIAR!" She wildly swung her hammer at the blue hedgehog, who commenced in running for his life.

"Shall we start our match as well?" Tails offered, turning to Knuckles.

"Sure. Count us off, Tikal?"

"All right... Ready, set... Start!"

Knuckles charged forward, not holding back any longer. He thrust a fist at Tails, who quickly jumped back and out of the way. Tails spun forward, swirling his double fox tails around towards his foe. The red mammal blocked and countered, forcing Tails to fly into the air in order to not get hit. Tails flew up higher, through the leaves, beckoning Knuckles to the treetops. Knuckles accepted the challenge; he grabbed onto a tree trunk and began climbing up.

"Ahh!" someone screamed as the sound of furiously rustling leaves hit Knuckles' ears. A _thud_ came soon after as the echidna spun his head around. He spotted his yellow opponent sprawled on the ground, rubbing one fox tail.

Knuckles jumped out of the tree, alarmed, and ran over to his injured friend, yelling, "Tails! What happened?"

This caught everyone's attention. They all dropped what they were doing and hurried over to the commotion.

"There's someone..." Tails started, but the rustling of leaves drew their attention upwards.

"My, it seems there really _is_ a lot of you!" a bat said, hovering above their heads. She grinned as she watched the angry animals glare at her.

"It's you!" Knuckles exclaimed, bringing a clenched fist up.

"Oh, so the _knucklehead_ is here, too. _And_ the other echidna. Does this mean that emerald isn't guarded?"

"_Don't you dare try to steal it!_"

"Is this that Rouge person you told me about?" Sonic inquired.

"I see you've heard of me. I've heard a lot about all of you, too." _...And I met you before I knew I was a bat._ Grinning deviously, she decided to surprise them. "Sonic, Tails, Amy, Cream, Tikal, Knuckles," she said, staring the appropriate person in the eyes as she said his or her name. "Oh yeah, and Cheese."

"Chao chao!" Cheese exclaimed, shocked.

"She knows each of us already?" Amy could hardly believe it—after all, most of them weren't known by name like Sonic was.

"Rouge, stop making such a commotion," a cold voice spoke up. Everyone turned to find the voice—standing against a tree was a black hedgehog with red stripes.

"Another hedgehog?"

"Shadow...!" Sonic and Shadow furiously glared at each other.

"Our match from a month ago isn't over yet."

"Good! I was hoping to show you what I've learned!" Sonic answered confidently.

"Sonic, who is this?"

"What's going on?"

"So, looks like our rivals have joined up..." Knuckles said to Sonic.

"They're not the only ones," came a familiar voice. Dr. Eggman hovered into the clearing in his hovercraft. Two robots stood on either side of him, and one hovered above him. Amy recognized the two robots on the ground—_Decoe and Bocoe, those two that tried to catch me!_ she thought vehemently. The last robot was much smaller; it was a black robot with spikes that propelled up from the side of its head, almost like horns. Keeping him afloat was a jet pack that spit out fire. The robot wore white gloves and red shoes, and his belt was white with a yellow 'M' on the center. He had a stripe that ran around his head in a 'V' on front, but it curved out into a circle on the back of his head.

"Go Dr. Eggman!" the little black robot cheered.

"Of course...!" exclaimed Tails. "That would explain how Dr. Eggman knows about our human forms!"

"Man, I was liking the peace and quiet...!" Sonic complained. "Now we'll have to hear explosions every day!"

"Every day? Then what about... _Valentine's Day_?" Amy looked ready to kill. She glared at Eggman. "If you do _anything_ on Valentine's Day, I will kill you myself!"

"Oh really?" Rouge asked from just behind Amy. Amy gasped and soon felt herself being lifted off of the ground. She swung her feet wildly as they left the ground, grasping for the earth again. Amy struggled as the bat pulled her higher and higher.

"Stop it! Put me down!" Amy yelled as she continued fighting the bat's firm grip.

"Don't worry, I'll put you down... soon."

"Miss Amy!"

"Stop!

"Let her go!"

Tails' tails spun rapidly as he took to the air. The wind he created jerked his fur around as he left the ground and flew upwards. Eggman pushed a button on his machine, and a laser promptly shot out. The beam hit Tails, knocking the fox to the ground.

"Tails!"

"Cheese! Let's go!" Cheese obeyed, immediately latching itself onto Cream's shoulder. As Cream flapped her ears, Cheese beat its tiny pink wings. The two charged into the air, headed straight for their friend. Suddenly, something struck the young girl in the side, knocking her into a tree; she fell to the ground, aching all over.

"Cream! Are you okay?"

"Cream! Cheese!" Sonic called before turning with ferocious eyes to the attacker: Shadow the Hedgehog.

Shadow grinned and taunted, "So, where are all of those moves you wanted to show me?"

"I'll show you them right now! Take a look at this!" Sonic yelled, enraged, as he charged in and rammed into Shadow. Shadow picked himself up and kicked Sonic—the fight was soon well on its way, each proving to be much better than before. Tails, on the other hand, took on Eggman, fighting in the air. Tails dodged a laser and hit Eggman's machine, but the machine was evidently very well made and hard to destroy.

Knuckles glared up at Rouge, trying to figure out a way to get Amy down. The bat flew higher and higher into the trees. "Let her go and come down and fight me, you coward!" yelled Knuckles.

"Cream! Cheese! Are you ready?"

"Yes! Cheese?"

"Chao!"

Knuckles heard Cream and Cheese flapping in the air. He almost started to look around to try to keep them from getting hit when something else caught his eye: an arrow glazed past Rouge, making her accidentally drop Amy. Amy gasped as she rushed to the ground, holding her dress down.

"Amy!" Everyone's attention was now on her.

Cream flew higher until she was able to grab her friend's hand. She lowered the pink hedgehog safely to the ground, where Tikal hurried over.

"Are you okay, Amy?"

"Yes, thank you!"

They all noticed something then: in Tikal's hand was a strung bow. Almost directly after they noticed it, it vanished, much like Amy's hammers would vanish.

_Hm, I like these girls already..._ Rouge thought from above. _They're not pushovers... good. Well, except for that one..._

"I'm going to make you pay for doing that!" Amy yelled up. "Cream, let's go!"

"R-right!" Cream flapped her ears again—_I guess this is good flying practice,_ she thought.

The two charged at the bat surprisingly fast. Rouge moved out of the way, but she soon learned that Amy was anticipating that; Amy summoned her hammer just as Rouge moved out of the way, slamming the weapon into Rouge's jaw. The bat hit a tree and slumped down onto a branch, holding her cheek. _She's no pushover, either... guess I shouldn't underestimate her,_ thought the bat.

"Impressive..." said the doctor. "Now, if I can have everyone's attention..."

Seven faces glared at him. The three tired fliers, Tails, Cream, and Cheese, landed on the ground. Rouge jumped down from the tree to land next to Eggman, and Shadow also walked over.

"We came to find you to... properly _introduce_ ourselves..."

"If that's what you call proper, I'd hate to think of what you call _rude_!" Sonic muttered.

"As you know, I am Dr. Eggman."

"I'm Decoe!"

"And I'm Bocoe!"

"We're Dr. Eggman's most faithful robots!" the silver and gold robots said from either side of the doctor.

"I'm Bokkun, the messenger robot!" the small black robot explained.

"I'm Rouge the Bat, an expert treasure hunter."

"More like a thief...!" commented Knuckles.

"Shadow the Hedgehog."

After a moment of silence, Sonic inquired, "So what, is it our turn now? All right, I'm the super-awesome Sonic the Hedgehog, and you're in for a surprise if you think you're going to beat me!"

"I'm Tails."

"Name's Knuckles the Echidna. Don't you _dare_ try touching the Master Emerald again."

"I'm Tikal the Echidna."

"I'm Cream the Rabbit! And this is my very best friend Cheese! I hope we don't have to fight too much..." Cream added with a sad tone. She then smiled kindly and bowed.

"I'm Amy Rose!" Amy said rather forcefully. "You better not try anything on Valentine's Day!"

_What is _with_ this girl and Valentine's Day?_ Rouge thought, surprised that she was still on the subject.

"There are seven of you..." Dr. Eggman said. "Well, six and a half. You'll need to recruit ten more if you want to win another Chaos Emerald..."

"What?"

"Ten more? A Chaos Emerald?"

"What do you mean?"

"We have found another Chaos Emerald, but we are willing to make a gamble... Let's say... if we win, we get your Chaos Emerald, and if you win, you get ours."

"And if we don't get enough people?" Tails pried.

"Then we automatically win and get your Chaos Emerald. Naturally, it's the same if _we_ don't have enough."

"What's the challenge?"

"I'll tell you only _after_ you accept or deny the challenge. Although, I can understand if you're too _scared_ to accept it," taunted Eggman.

"Of course we're not scared, you idiot!"

"Knuckles, calm down!"

"Well, Sonic?"

All eyes turned to the blue hedgehog. _My decision, eh? I don't like how confident he is... I'd like a chance to ram that confidence in his face._ "All right. I accept!"

"Good, good..." the doctor muttered. Picking up his voice, he explained, "The challenge is this: a game of chess."

"What?"

"No way...!"

"You _can't_ be serious...!" Sonic said, shocked. _I _fail_ at chess!_

_All right!_ Tails thought, on the contrary to what most of his group was thinking. He exchanged grins with Cream and Cheese, the only others who knew how good he was at chess.

"We will each be chess pieces," Eggman explained. "The king will decide where everyone moves... they must follow the rules of chess. The board will be set up just east of the city. We will hold the match in three days—I hope you can find the rest of your pieces by then. Oh ho ho ho ho!" Eggman started laughing as he turned his machine around and started flying off in the opposite direction as his enemies. The doctor's allies followed him without a word.

"Great. Just _great_. Chess, my worst thing _ever_!" Sonic complained. "We'll need to decide carefully for a king... I know someone who might be able to play the part, but if Eggman was to win, then..." _...then Miles could get hurt..._

"Tails can be the king!" came Cream's sweet voice.

"Chao chao!"

All eyes turned to the young fox, appalled. Tails turned red, not used to all of the attention on him.

"Tails is good at chess!" Cream continued.

"Really...?" Sonic asked; Tails nodded. "Tails, you're our hero! You're the king!"

"All or none, right?" Knuckles added.

"Let's show that Eggman who's better at chess!" declared Amy.

"We're counting on your direction, Tails," Tikal said.

Tails stared at his friends one by one, surprised. _All right... I can do this!_ he thought, clenching his fist to give himself some extra confidence. _I can do this!_

----


	10. A Game of Chess Part 1

Phew, finally finished the chess game... Since it was nineteen pages long, I split it up into two parts... I have the other one finished, so I'll post that this weekend. 

In other news, about the couples... I will announce the chosen ones in chapter 14, the Valentine's Day chapter. That chapter will be dedicated to an... odd couple that I decided upon a while back.

And starting this chapter, there is another challenge! The Avans Challenge! It is about the three Avans brothers, who will be properly introduced in this chapter. This is the hardest challenge, so you have a chance of winning two invisible items of your choice—the first person to get each part of this will win the item.

The first part of the Avans challenge is this: Avans means something in a different language... what does it mean? Hint one: It is not in an Asian language.

The second part of the Avans challenge: I used a Dungeons and Dragons "joke" to choose their last name... what's the 'DnD joke'? Hint one: It's a system probably used in other RPG games as well...

Good luck with those!

Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, or any other character from the Sonic games or Sonic X (including their human forms). They're owned by Sonic Team and SEGA.

**--A Game of Chess Part 1--**

_I can do this!_

"So what do we do first, _King_ Tails?" Sonic asked jokingly.

"First we need to figure out what we have," answered a determined Tails. "We have six people... The first things we need to fill up are the king, the queen, the two bishops, the two knights, and the two castles."

"The queen's the best fighter, right?" Sonic inquired. "All right, I'll be the queen."

Knuckles burst out laughing—it was too good. "Sonic's the queen! Ahaha!"

"Hey, shut up! The queen can fight!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, _Princess_ Sonic!" Knuckles teased.

_The bishop's right next to the queen, right...?_ Amy thought. "I'll be the right bishop!" After she said it, she mentally kicked herself. _I did it again! Oh, I'm so sorry, Tim!_

"Cheese and I will be the left bishop!" offered Cream.

"I'll be a knight—they tend to be one of the best pieces," said Knuckles.

"I guess I'll be the other knight, then," Tikal added.

"So we need ten more people... the castles and the pawns..."

"Where are we going to get that many from?"

"We know one!"

"Chao!"

"Great, nine more..."

"I'm not so sure about that, Cream..."

"She said she wants to help out if she can."

"Hey Tails, you're good with machines, can you make robots or something?"

"W-what? No, I don't make robots," answered an alarmed Tails.

"I don't think there even _are_ ten more people like us..." Amy pointed out.

"But we can't use normal people! They could get hurt!" argued Tikal.

"Maybe... but maybe I can discuss that with Eggman," Tails suggested. "I'm sure there's some way we can do this!"

"I'm going with you," Sonic said.

"All right. We'll tell you the plan afterwards. Let's meet up at the workshop tomorrow."

----

"Check mate!" called out Miles. His friends quickly clapped and cheered while his opponent stared at the board in disbelief.

Deciding that the kid had indeed won, the loser Paul stood up. "Tomorrow's the tournament," the teenager said, his cool yellow eyes watching his enemy closely. "I will win that." Paul helped clean up before walking away without another word. Miles' friends didn't bother cleaning up—they left, wishing the young genius luck in the tournament. Miles was the last, besides Dr. Eggman, to leave.

_Everything's about chess right now... but I have no clue how Dr. Eggman plays chess..._ thought Miles as he walked through the empty school. He was so deep in thought, that he didn't see the people outside of the school until after one of them called his name. He looked up to find two people standing in front of him: Millie and a friend of hers.

"How was chess club?" Millie asked eagerly. Before Miles had a chance to answer, his sister continued, "Good luck in the tournament tomorrow!"

"Uh, thanks..."

"My brother's gonna be in it, too!" said Millie's friend. "That'd be so cool if you two make it to the finals!"

The high school boy stared at Millie's young, hyper friend. The boy's blonde hair jetted out from his head. He watched the older boy through eager orange eyes. He wore an orange T-shirt that was decorated with many colors, but mainly black. He wore black sweat pants for easy running, and on top of his head sat a black baseball cap.

"Who's this?" Miles asked kindly, smiling at Millie's friend.

"Brandon..." a familiar voice called, "come on, Eric will be home soon."

Miles looked to the new voice only to find his rival standing there: Paul Avans.

"Yay, Eric's home!" the boy known as Brandon cheered. "Oh, Millie, this is one of my brothers, Paul! My other brother, Eric, is in college!"

"Wow, that's so cool!"

_My sister..._ thought Miles, shocked, _...is friends with Paul's brother?_

"Let's go, Brandon," beckoned Paul, but his eyes never met the younger Avans; his cool, yellow eyes pierced through Miles like daggers of ice pierced through paper.

"All right! See ya tomorrow, Millie!" Brandon said, unfazed by his brother's cold glare. The two walked away from the school.

"Shall we head to the workshop?" Millie asked Miles.

"S-sure... Where's Cheese?"

"He's already there! _She_ took him!"

----

"Pleased to make your acquaintance," she greeted as she bowed to Sonic and the others. "I am Vanilla the Rabbit." The new face just looked just like an older version of Cream. Her kind, brown eyes watched the younger people, greeting all of them with a motherly smile. A ruffle of hair poked down between her ears, adding to her humble appearance. Her dress was long and purple, ending in white, and above it she wore a red and white vest. Her blue tie completed the old-fashioned outfit. Large white gloves covered her hands; gold pins held the gloves on her tiny arms. Her shoes were brown high heels with gold buckles. "I have heard much about all of you."

"Mother's going to be one of the castles!" said an excited Cream as she hugged the older rabbit's legs.

"Chao chao!"

"So you're Cream's mom? Well, it's nice to meet you!" Sonic greeted.

"You must be Sonic. Thank you for taking care of my children."

"No problem," Sonic said before something occurred to him. _Wait, children? Ooh, does she include Cheese? I guess they've had it long enough that she probably thinks of it as her child by now..._

"Now we just need the other castle and the eight pawns!" Knuckles concluded.

"How on _earth_ are we going to find nine more?"

"Sonic, Tails, what did you learn from Eggman the other day?" Tikal asked hopefully.

"We can attack with whatever we want... the challenges will be random," explained Tails.

"So should we recruit normal people or not?"

"We may have to regardless at this rate..." Amy pointed out. _I hope Tim doesn't participate... but if he does, I'll be sure to guard him with my hammers of love!_

"Amy's right. Eggman said that normal people wouldn't have to participate in the fights—he has other challenges set up for them," Tails explained.

"I still hate having to revert to using normal people, though..." Tikal muttered.

"If Eggman does _anything_ to our team members that he said he wouldn't do, I'll _personally_ make him pay," Sonic assured everyone.

----

_I wonder how the recruiting's going..._ Miles thought as he sat in chemistry class. _And I have that tournament today..._ He sighed and laid his pencil down—he couldn't concentrate on chemistry at the moment. He put his head and his hands and pondered the chess games; he was so deep in concentration that he barely heard the bell ring.

"Miles, are you okay?" the familiar voice of Miles' best friend called. Miles snapped up to find Tim and Hiei standing over him.

"Y-yeah!" Miles answered as he stood up. "Has the bell rung?"

"Huh? You missed it? Geez, were you sleeping? That's so not like you!"

"Worried about the tournament?" Hiei asked.

"Yeah..." Miles trailed off. _...And the game against Dr. Eggman..._

"Oh come on, you'll be fine! _Nobody_ beats you at chess!" Tim cheerfully encouraged his friend. _I just hope Tails is as good as Miles!_

"Tim! Hiei! Miles!" Sam yelled as she poked her head into the classroom. "Come here, look at what we found!"

"But I have that tournament..."

"Oh come on, this will only take a moment!" Sam persuaded. The boys exchanged confused looks before completely gathering their stuff and walking out of the classroom. There they found Alice and a confused Emily also standing there.

"What's going on?" Tim asked curiously.

"I don't know," Emily said, "but I'm glad you're here! Now we can find out together!"

"Oh... great..." Tim mumbled dryly. The group followed Sam and Alice outside of the school building. They kept walking until they found a wooden fence.

"Ta da! Look!" Sam said as she pointed to a poster on the fence.

"You should join, too," Alice told her friends kindly.

Tim's and Miles' jaws dropped: it was the recruitment poster for the game of chess. In the pawns section, around the middle, were written the two names "Sam" and "Alice". _They _can't_ be serious...!_ the two boys thought, completely shocked. _How did they find this...?_

_Uh-oh... but Sam and Alice could get hurt!_ Emily thought, worried.

Hiei, however, stared in a state of incredulity. This_ is how they're recruiting people for their team?_ he thought, astonished. _That's pathetic..._

"Doesn't it look so cool?" Sam asked eagerly. "You should sign up next to us!"

"I have better things to do than join a silly game," said Hiei as he walked back towards the school.

"Aww... What about you, Tim?"

"I-I also have... something else to do!"

"I have to prepare for Valentine's Day," said Emily.

_Is that _all_ girls think about?_ Tim wondered, remembering the way Amy Rose had acted the other day.

"Geez, this is a once in a life time thing and _none_ of you can join? You're coming, right, Miles?"

"Eeehhh?" _But... I'm the king of that game! I can't be in two places at once!_ Miles thought, trying to come up with a good excuse. "I really wish I could—I'd love to see such a chess match—but I have to take care of my sister."

"So why don't you both sign up?"

"Mother wouldn't like that!" Miles said quickly, his mind too occupied to think of anything better.

"Man oh man, a once and a life time thing and you're _all_ missing out!" Sam complained.

"Don't worry, we'll video tape it for you," Alice said gently.

"Look!" a hyper voice called out. A young boy squeezed through the legs of the high school group and pointed up at the poster. Miles quickly recognized the boy as Brandon Avans.

"Brandon, don't run off like that!" a voice called out from behind the group. The five quickly moved out of the way, where they became spectators.

"Eric, let's sign up! Please, please, pretty please with sugar on top?" Brandon eagerly asked as he stared the older boy in the eyes. Orange eyes met darker orange, almost red eyes before the elder boy tore away and looked at the sign. The older boy wore a loose shirt, cargos, and a light jacket. On his green head sat a pair of headphones, and around his neck he wore a gold chain necklace. "We can sign Paul up, too!" Brandon continued.

"Hm, this _is_ interesting... on Sonic's team, eh? All right, where do you want to stand?"

"I wanna be the castle!"

"You're too young to be the castle!"

"Please, Eric?"

_Next time we need to think of a better way of doing this..._ Miles thought frantically.

"Why don't we put Paul as the castle? He knows chess better than either of us."

"Then I wanna stand right behind him!" Brandon said.

"All right already!"

_Can't they read the full poster _before_ signing up...?_ Tim thought, quite worried.

----

Miles quickly progressed through the preliminaries, surprising his elder antagonists. His friends stayed behind him the whole time, cheering him on. Miles rarely lost any pieces as he conquered the board. Even the semifinals were a synch for the young genius.

Soon the battle of chess became a battle of rivals as Miles took his final seat—a seat opposite of Paul. Tim and Kevin glared at each other over the board while their friends prepared for battle. On the other hand, Millie and Brandon chatted happily. Ms. Prower proudly watched her son, cheering him on.

The match began, each thinking hard before making his move. Pieces disappeared from the board as the competitors gave and took in order to reach the final outcome. Miles soon starts chasing Paul's king with his last two important pieces—his queen and a bishop. Paul wasn't much better off, with only a queen and a knight.

_He's cornered!_ Miles thought as he moved in for the kill. He moved his bishop over the king, with only squares in Miles' queen's route for an escape. "Check mate." Paul examined the board, not happy about this win. Miles and his friends beamed while Paul's friends cringed.

Paul's eyes suddenly widened. He grabbed his knight and moved it over, putting it directly in between the king and the bishop. Miles stared, his heart sinking. How could he miss the knight? And now if he took it, one of his two attackers would be destroyed. Paul smirked. "And the game continues." With his queen in range of Paul's knight, Miles was forced to retreat to the edge of the board.

Paul grinned and took this chance to set his own queen up. As he forced Miles away, he moved his queen across from Miles' queen. "Check mate," said the elder boy.

Miles stared, but there was no way to get around it—his adversary had won. _This isn't good... if I can't even win this, how will I beat Doctor Eggman...?_ Miles sighed, feeling a little down.

"I coulda sworn you had him!" Tim said. "Oh well... you'll beat him next time, right?"

"Yeah..."

Paul stood up.

"Nice job, bro!" Brandon cheered.

"Great job in the tournament, Miles. I'm so proud of you!" Ms. Prower said.

Millie leaned over and whispered to her brother, "We should get going, shouldn't we?" Miles nodded. Now it was time to play the king... Miles just worried about whether he'd be able to beat the doctor or not.

----

"Sonic! We have a problem!" Tails complained as they stood outside of the humongous chessboard.

"What? What'd'ya mean?" Sonic asks. The others soon tune in as Tails hands Sonic the sign-up sheet.

"We're short one person!" Tails explained frantically. "At this rate, we'll have to give Doctor Eggman the Chaos Emerald!"

"What? We need one more person?"

"Maybe we can get someone before it starts!" Knuckles suggested. "Let's find someone, Sonic!"

"In your places," Eggman announced over a microphone before the two could leave. "It's time to start the match."

Knuckles said a few choice words before turning to Cream. "Hey, can Cheese take the last square?"

"Cheese wouldn't be able to participate in some of the competitions..." Tails muttered.

"I said in your places!" Eggman yelled. Tails turned to find almost all of the humans on their team in the places they had signed up to be, along with Eggman's whole team set up. Holding his head low, Tails trudged over to his square, his friends following.

"What are we going to do...?" Sonic whispered, at a loss.

Soon enough, each person stood in his or her respective square. Only one square was empty—one of the pawn squares. A dark square between Sam and Eric failed to have any person occupying it. Eggman quickly took note of this.

"I see you're missing a square... I guess you can't participate then... too bad," Eggman said, not sounding sorry at all. Sonic cringed. _We just needed one more..._

"They have enough," a voice spoke up. The living pieces turned to see the three cloaked ghost standing at the edge of the board. "I'll fill in for their last piece... if I can be a castle," the girl in green announced.

_There's something odd about her..._ Sonic thought, but he couldn't quite place it. It wasn't anything about her personality, but something about her appearance seemed a little... out of place.

"All right! Paul, Mom, will one of you be a pawn?" Tails asked desperately.

"Wait wait wait! Hold the phone!" Sonic yelled, his eyes widening. "_Mom_?"

"Yeah. Vanilla is my mom and Cream is my sister... what, have we not told you?" Tails asked.

Silence filled the board as everyone stared in awe. Sonic gaped as he stared back and forth between the rabbits and the castle. "...What? You just destroyed _everything_ I've _ever_ learned about biology..." Tails couldn't hide the grin of amusement. Cream and Cheese happily laughed.

Vanilla smiled and stepped away from her square. "I will be the pawn." She walked over to the pawn square, which stood in front of her daughter. The girl in the green cloak began walking to the castle square. As the two passed, Vanilla nodded lightly to the girl. "I wish you well," Vanilla said.

Eggman turned to the other two cloaked figures, who were watching him. "Are you two planning on joining as well?" he demanded, annoyed.

"Yes, actually," said the boy. "We'll be on your team. We see you have a few... robots for castles. Why don't you move your team around a little? I'll be a bishop, and my friend here will be a knight."

"Picky, aren't you?"

"I'm very sorry about that, but you see, you'd get confused if we weren't," the girl in the blue cloak explained.

"Why is that...?" Tails asked.

"I am known as the Castle," the girl in the green cloak answered.

"I'm the Bishop!" the red boy introduced himself.

"And I am called the Knight," concluded the girl in blue.

"Interesting... All right. Decoe, Bocoe, you two are the castles. Bokkun, you're a bishop. Rouge, Shadow, you two stay where you are."

"But that means we'll be so far away...!" complained the silver and gold robots.

"Just do as you're told!" Eggman scolded. Reluctantly, the robots placed themselves where they were ordered. The board was set.

Tails now took a good look at where all of the pieces stood. His team was made up of half humans, half animals, and one unknown. Starting on Tails' right was Cream and Cheese as the bishop, Knuckles as the knight, and Paul as the castle. On the fox's other side stood Sonic as the queen, Amy as the other bishop, Tikal as the other knight, and the Castle as her respective chess piece. The pawns, starting in front of the Castle and going to the right, were Henry, Mike, John, Alice, Sam, Vanilla, Eric, and finally, Brandon. Mike held his trusty katana, while Henry was equipped with a camera. _We have way too many normal people..._ Tails thought, worried about his friends and even his enemies.

Opposite of them hovered Eggman in his usual machine, looking quite confident in himself. Next to him, as the queen of the dark side, stood Shadow. After the robots were all in their appropriate positions, little Bokkun found himself in between Shadow and the Knight. On the other side of the doctor were first the Bishop and then Rouge. Six people separated the two faithful robots Decoe and Bocoe, the silver one next to the Knight and the gold on next to Rouge. The pawns were robots of the same make, each with a letter and number printed largely on them: R1 through R8.

Above the humongous chessboard floated one more robot. It was large and in a cone shape, only with the tip cut off. It had two arms and two screens wrapping around its body—one on each side of the arms. "That robot is the referee," the doctor explained. "It is E-1000. As for the rules of the game... Just because you land in a square does not mean you take it. When you land in a square occupied by an enemy, you will fight for the square. There are various battle methods, each with their own set of rules... When there is a battle, E-1000 will randomly choose one of the methods. You may win by any means necessary, as long as you complete the goal of the battle. If your feet land outside of the square during the battle, you are immediately disqualified." Eggman's eyes landed on each of his enemies one by one as he spoke, considering them. "You may have the first move," he confidently invited.

_So now it's started..._ Tails spun his tails and flew up above the chessboard. He and Eggman both hovered above their own square so they could easily see the actual board and know what they were doing. Tails glanced at his pieces, trying to decide how to move first.

"Sam! Step two forward!" Tails finally decided.

"Aye-aye, Captain!" Sam screamed, a wide grin spread across her face. She hopped two squares forward, excited to be the first to move in this living game. Once in the square, she happily turned to her best friend and made a V-sign with her fingers.

"Rouge, move in front of R6," commanded Dr. Eggman.

Rouge spread her dark wings and gracefully took to the sky. She flew to the square she was asked of and easily landed on the ground, smiling at her enemies. Knuckles glared at the bat as Tails thought about his next move.

"Cream, cover Sam."

"All right, brother! Come on, Cheese!" Cream and Cheese happily ran over to their square, laughing.

"R4, two forwards."

"John, please move two squares up."

"Bokkun..." Eggman considered for a minute before finalizing his decision, "move four squares to the left."

Bokkun's jet pack activated, but when he looked, he couldn't _get_ four squares to the left... Noticing the small robot's troubles, the Knight leaned over and kindly offered, "Remember, you're a bishop—he means diagonally."

"R-right! I knew that! I didn't need you to tell me, idiot!" Bokkun angrily yelled as he floated to his square, fuming.

"What'd she say...?" Sonic asked curiously.

"Nothing, stupid!" Bokkun screamed.

"Cream, protect Sonic!"

"Hey, I don't _need_ protecting!" Sonic said stubbornly as Cream and Cheese moved to the square.

"Sonic, you're the _queen_. There's no way we're going to let you get taken yet," Tails explained, but Sonic just glared angrily. _I guess next time I'll word it differently..._ Tails thought.

"Well, then, I think it's time to get the queens _out_... Shadow, move out one."

Sam grinned wildly as she stared at the two 'queens'. Turning to Alice, she said, "I wonder what kind of battle our _queens_ would have... I think they should have a ballet battle!"

"Don't even dream of it!" the two male hedgehogs angrily yelled.

Tails, stifling a laugh, cleared his throat as he scanned the board for his next move. "Mom, move one forward."

"Bokkun, move one back and to your left."

Tails contemplated his next move. _All right... time for me to start pushing forwards!_ "John, take R4!"

_Interesting move... I didn't think he'd have the humans battle,_ Shadow thought as he watched.

_Be careful, John,_ Rouge and Knuckles both thought.

John stepped into the square. E-1000 floated above the square, where its screen flashed as it cycled between options. The cycling slowed down until it finally reached the type of match the two pawns would do: Tic-Tac-Toe. From the bottom of the robot lowered a board. The board had nine squares covered by a translucent screen.

"Tic-Tac-Toe," Eggman announced. "The attacker is 'O,' the defender is 'X.' Start when you are ready."

John reached a hand out and cautiously touched a square of the board. The translucent screen blinked, summoning forth an "O." The robot then reached forth and touched a screen to mark its square. The two played a few games before one finally won. John touched a square, making his third "O" and then drew a line across the screen with his hand. E-1000 took up the board and lowered on of its hands, which clamped R4 in its grasp as John's team cheered. Realizing that he had safely won, John breathed easily. His legs gave out and he sat in his square, smiling widely to himself. R4 fell just outside of the board, to Tails' right.

"Great job, John!" Tails called.

_For one of my enemies, he did good!_ Sonic thought. _All right... Let's do this!_

----


	11. A Game of Chess Part 2

Thank you all for your reviews! It makes me so happy! (Sorry I didn't put that in the last chapter... I was so excited to be _finished_ with it that I was trying to post it as quickly as possible). I hope you all enjoy this chapter as well!

I would like to thank Healing for helping me with this chapter and the previous one and for playing the chess game with me so I could make it. Thank you very, very much!

Time for the Avans Challenge part two! (We have no winners yet! You can guess multiple times, too, so don't worry about trying! However, if you try guessing everything I'll only take the first few. o.o')

Hint two for the first question: It is not one of the many African languages.

Hint two for the second question: ...:D It has nothing to do with the monsters in Dungeons and Dragons. (If you need a reference to DnD, search for Dungeons System References).

Disclaimer (this one's long!): I do not own Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, or any other character from the Sonic games or Sonic X (including their human forms). I do not own Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine nor the "chicken gun" (the Vacuum Egg gun from Shadow the Hedgehog)... all of the above are owned by Sega and Sonic Team. I do not own DDR, Sudoku, or many of the other games that'll appear in here... they are each owned by different companies. The only games I own are the game battles, which are just meant to be generic games (although you can probably guess where the idea for one of them came from). And I own the game system! Score.

**--A Game of Chess Part 2--**

Shadow stepped forwards a square so he was eye-to-eye with John, the winner of the first battle. "Pretty good... for a human. Let's see if your group can keep this up."

"You bet we will!" Mike yelled from his spot in the pawn row. "Nice one, by the way, John!"

"Knuckles, move in front of Brandon," Tails commanded, picking up the game.

"Finally, I get to move!" Knuckles said happily. He jumped and glided over to his square, his dreadlocks waving as they worked.

"Wait, do _normal_ echidnas glide...?" Brandon asked, stunned.

"This is _definitely_ something strange!" Eric agreed.

Knuckles grinned as he glanced back at the two. "I'm not exactly a normal echidna now, am I?"

"You're absolutely right," said the eldest Avans. "This calls for extreme measures... So..." he said seriously; Eric's voice then lightened up a ton as he continued, "can I have an interview with you after the match?"

"Rouge, get rid of John," Eggman exclaimed, capturing everyone's attention again.

Rouge silently flew to the square, where she landed with her feet together, her wings accenting her features. "So, what'll it be this time?" she asked confidently.

E-1000 cycled through choices before reaching a consensus.

"Questions this time," Eggman announced. "One question will be asked, and the first person to call out the _correct_ answer gets the square." E-1000's screen flashed again until it showed a white question on its dark screen. The evil doctor opened his mouth to read the question, but then he stopped. Everyone stared at the question: "Will you marry me?"

Sonic gaped. "What kind of question is _that_?" he demanded after a moment. John stalled, appalled by the odd question, while Rouge smirked.

"No," Rouge said quickly.

"Correct. Rouge takes the square," the evil doctor proclaimed.

"What? That makes no sense!" Sonic's team yelled angrily.

"What sense is there to make?" asked Eggman. "It was simply looking for the first person to answer! Oh ho ho ho!"

E-1000 reached out its metal claw and snatched John up. It floated over to the edge of the board, where it released John onto the sidelines. The machine then floated back over the chessboard.

"Sam! Take Rouge!"

"All right!" Sam leaped into Rouge's square, grinning. "I haven't heard much about you... Well, good luck to both of us!" Rouge nodded without a word.

E-1000 chose their combat: arm wrestling. The robot dropped down to the square, the perfect height for a table. The girls each put a right elbow on the table and grabbed hands. E-1000's metal claw held the hands of the girls' together so they couldn't start yet. Numbers counted on its screens for all to see, and then it released it grip on the girls. They both pushed with all their might. Sam felt her arm weaken, aching all the way down. Within seconds, her hand forcefully hit the robot table. Rouge released her grip and Sam slowly pulled her arm in, where she nursed it. E-1000 pulled itself off of the ground, grabbing Sam on its ascend. It took her to the sidelines and deposited her next to the robot and the boy.

"Shadow, move left two," Eggman ordered, and the black hedgehog did so.

Tails weighed his options before deciding what to do. He turned his head to the right, where he only saw Paul. "Paul, I'm going to castle!"

"Right," agreed the boy. He walked to his square as Tails flew over him. Safely in the boundary, Tails continued his careful watch over the board, only this time from a different angle.

"All right, Rouge... move in!" Eggman commanded.

Rouge smirked and flew into the air. She gracefully landed in a dangerous spot: she stood diagonal to two enemy pawns. "Which one of you two will I fight first?" she asked as she stared first at Alice and then at Mike. Mike blushed wildly.

"Mike," Tails answered. Mike happily hopped into the square.

"Hey there, Miss Bat. My name's Mike... I don't suppose after this we can get a cup of coffee or something?"

"You idiot!" yelled Knuckles. "Don't flirt with the enemy!"

"Such a gracious offer! That sounds lovely!" Rouge agreed.

Above their heads E-1000 determined their fate: a staring contest.

_Heh heh... I like this one!_ Mike thought happily.

"Ready... set... Start!" Eggman called out.

The two stared, silence filling the field.

"What you were saying earlier... maybe we could meet tonight," Rouge said with a wink. Mike's face turned as red as Knuckles; his knees melted out from under him and his face clearly turned upwards.

"Sounds... great..." was all Mike could get out.

"And the winner is Rouge!"

E-1000 clutched Mike, who didn't even notice; he was in his own fantasy world.

"That's dirty!" Amy yelled at Rouge, perturbed by the bat's display.

"To do that to someone... Tails, may I fight her next?" Tikal asked.

"Eh?" Everyone stared, surprised. "Uhh... sure..." Tails agreed.

"Well then, since that's decided, we'll let you move in... Shadow, move right one."

Tikal then gently walked towards Rouge's square. She stopped as soon as she stood in it, the two girls glaring daggers at each other.

E-1000 produced yet another new challenge. This time it dropped an ancient game system for the ladies to battle on. The game: Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine.

"Dr. Robotnik? Who's that?" Knuckles asked curiously.

"That's another name for me," Eggman explained happily.

"Wait, Eggman has a game? What's with _that_?" Sonic demanded.

"Wow, it was made in 1993! That's centuries ago! This game is ancient!" Tails pointed out, intrigued. "And it still runs! That's so cool!"

"Tails! This is our enemy's _game_!" Sonic called out.

"Oh right... sorry!"

"Everyone tries to keep what ancient games they can find in tact nowadays..." Knuckles said. "There are some really good ones out there. If we can remake the old games and create more, then we'd have an infinite amount of games available... definitely a perfect game for every person!"

"You sure do know a lot about games for someone who spends his time on a remote island..."

While they talked, the girls battled it out on the game. Beans fell, rocks flew, and sounds echoed across the field. Neither would give up easily—they both tried hard to get the colors to fall and hurt the other player. As the beans fell faster, the girls started struggling to keep up. Tikal's mountain of beans grew higher while Rouge managed to keep hers in the middle of the screen. With the beans falling too fast to think, both completely lost strategy and placed beans wherever they could. Tikal hit the top. She lost.

The referee pulled up the game system and TV the girls used and grabbed Tikal. It dropped her on the sidelines, and the game of chess resumed.

"Rouge, get rid of Cream," commanded her king.

Soon enough, the bat's feet hit her new opponent's square and the girls faced off.

"What is this, a match of cat fights?" Sonic asked, bored. Rouge angrily glared at him as E-1000 counted off the options. This time it was a battle of rock-paper-scissors. The two held a fist out, ready to go.

"Rock-paper-scissors, shoot!" the girls yelled, changing their hands to various positions at the end. Cream held her hand flat for paper, while Rouge's index and middle fingers stuck out for scissors."

"And Rouge gets another win!" Eggman announced. "As well as a check."

"Sonic!"

"Right!" Sonic charged into Rouge's square and E-1000 cycled again. The robot landed on another staring contest.

Sonic glared at the bat, making it obvious that he wouldn't fall for such an easy trick as Mike had. So instead, both just stared in silence.

Sonic's frown soon turned into a smirk as an idea hit him. He jumped back to the edge of the square, and then started circling Rouge, keeping his eyes on her. She followed him easily at first, but the hedgehog picked up speed until she no longer knew where he was. "That... that's not fair!" Rouge yelled out, but both knew it was too late.

Sonic stopped back in his original position, a hand on his hip. "One point for us!" Obediently, E-1000 scooped down to pick up Rouge and deposit her outside of the board. Sonic's team cheered loudly, yelling their praise to the blue hedgehog.

"Great job, Sonic!"

"You got rid of her!"

"We're back in the game!"

"Not so fast," came a dark voice. Everyone turned to look only to find Shadow already standing in Sonic's square. "It's me versus you, hedgehog. E-1000, what's the battle type?"

E-1000 soon produced the challenge. The whole board paused as they stared, Sonic's mouth hanging open. From the sidelines, Sam and Mike burst into laughter, and soon after the rest of the board roared. Sonic and Shadow stood there, completely red, as everyone laughed.

"S-shut up! This isn't funny!" Sonic yelled furiously. On E-1000's screen the words "Oh ho ho ho ho" cycled through to further emphasis the point. "Shut up, you piece of junk! This isn't funny!"

"Sorry, Sonic..." Tails said, but he still continued laughing.

Finished with its laughing, E-1000 put the challenge type back on the screen and lowered the necessary materials.

"This is stupid..." Shadow muttered, annoyed.

"What, scared?" Sonic taunted.

"I simply don't like making a fool of myself."

"Ooh, I get it! You can't dance, can you?"

"Of course I can!"

The two male hedgehogs glared at each other before stubbornly stepping onto the two pads. They turned their glares to the TV screen and prepared for their match on Dance Dance Revolution.

Happy music filled the air and the two hedgehogs were off, hitting the appropriate squares with excellent speed... although sometimes a little _too_ much speed. Shadow turned deep red, completely embarrassed by the experience.

"Wow, I never imagined Shadow dancing! Especially not to a song like this!" commented the Bishop.

The Castle giggled. "Yes, it is quite relaxing..."

Shadow turned even redder and faltered a little, humiliated.

"Come on, Shadow! You can beat him at this!" the Knight cheered for her teammate.

Many on the board laughed periodically at the match and danced to the song themselves.

The song finally ended, releasing Shadow from the misery. The scores shot up on the screen: Sonic won with an almost perfect score.

"Ha! Take that, Shadow!"

"All right! Great job, Sonic!"

Shadow didn't bother waiting for the slow robot—he raced off the board and angrily found himself a tree on the sidelines.

Tails took his time to allow everyone time to relax after the exciting match. He then called out, "Amy, move next to Henry!"

"All right!" Amy ran to her square, happy to finally move, though sad that she moved away from Sonic.

"R1, move two forward."

"Amy, move between Sonic and R5!"

"Enough of this... Bokkun, take Vanilla's square."

"Y-yes, Dr. Eggman!" Bokkun called as he floated to the square Vanilla the Rabbit stood in. E-1000 chose yet another combat for them, and it landed on the game battle.

The round robot lowered down two game systems, each already equipped with the game. Knuckles grinned as he watched the competitors each take a system. The systems were shaped like helmets with a green shield on the front. They were designed to take all of the senses inside a virtual reality game, so while one was standing still in the real world, they would be fighting monsters or racing in the virtual world. On top of that, there were various adaptors for connecting the systems for multiplayer and to a TV for others to watch. With some of the newer adaptors, people could connect over the Internet and play on the systems from all over the world. _Eggman sure does have a lot of gaming stuff for a doctor that wants to take over the world..._ the red echidna thought, amused.

"Decoe, is that...?"

"He's using our gaming systems! He didn't even ask us!"e the two robots complained.

Vanilla and Bokkun put the helmets on and E-1000's screen popped up to show everyone what was going on in the game. The two were participating in a car racing game. Vanilla glanced around at the cars she stood beside on the game, clueless. "Oh my... which car...?"

Tails glanced at the stats of the cars, trying to pick out the best one. When he found it, he called out, "Mom, take the A-85! It's a good all around!"

"Okay," Vanilla said as she opened the door and sat in the car. She put her seatbelt on and found all of the controls she would need while waiting. The scenery around her and her adversary vanished and was soon replaced by a beachside track. Bokkun excitedly put his car into gear—Tails recognized it as the fastest car available. Other cars appeared besides them and the course started its countdown.

"Hm, I wonder if you can just run on that game..." Sonic muttered.

Knuckles sighed at the abstruse suggestion. "No, Sonic, it's a _car_ racing game for a reason. It won't take you to the track until you're buckled into the car, and after that the buckles are locked."

"Couldn't you just slip out and race?"

"Due to the safety features, _no_," argued the echidna. "It's set to automatically close the course down once the person leaves the seat."

"Well that's no fun!" his blue friend complained.

"Sonic, you're so light it'd put you on the children's course anyway..."

"Hey! That's not fair!"

"Wow, you know a lot about games, Knuckles!" Tails said, surprised. "I wish I could get some and study them like that... I'd love to know how they make all of them!"

"What, you mean you don't—"

"Mom! Watch out!"

"Chaaaooooo!"

Everyone turned at the sound of the young rabbit's pleas. Vanilla's car hit a wall; the game slowly flashed her back on the course so she could try again.

"She's safe..." Cream announced, relieved.

"Chao chao!"

"Don't worry, no one can get hurt on those games unless they're as reckless as Sonic," Knuckles assured the little girl.

"Hey, what was that?"

"And the winner is Bokkun!" Eggman announced, making Knuckles suddenly realize that he had just missed the whole match. As soon as it collected the gaming systems, E-1000 scooped up the woman and dumped her next to her daughter. The game of chess resumed.

"I won, I won!" Bokkun cheered. "I wo—eh?" He glanced up to find that Sonic now also stood in his square; Bokkun's eyes grew with horror. "Ah! Don't surprise me like that! Idiot, idiot!"

"Hey, what's our battle?" Sonic called up to E-1000. The robot produced yet a new result: enemy defeat.

"Oh ho ho!" laughed Eggman. "Enemy defeat... E-1000 will drop robots, and the person to destroy the most robots wins!"

"All right, piece of cake!" Sonic said.

E-1000 dropped a bunch of TVs next to Bokkun, who looked up curiously. "You can use these to get rid of the enemies—they'll explode upon contact," Eggman explained.

"A-all right! I'll do my best, Dr. Eggman!"

"Ready... start!"

E-1000 started dropping robots onto the square. Sonic balled up and spun rapidly. He then threw himself off of the ground to slam through the robots, quickly moving around to get them all. Bokkun started throwing TVs as fast as he could in an attempt to hit the robots before Sonic did; however, the blue hedgehog always managed to destroy the robots and escape before the TV got there.

_I'm losing! There has to be something I can do..._ Bokkun thought. _There!_ The little messenger robo chucked a TV not directly at a robot, but a little to its right. Sonic hit the robot and then bounced back and headed for the next, not even paying attention to Bokkun's TVs. The TV hit Sonic, knocking him out of the air.

"Sonic!"

Sonic landed on the edge of the chess square they fought in, his feet barely inside and his head threatening to drop him outside of the square. Eggman smirked and prepared to press the buzzer for disqualification.

The determined hedgehog thrust himself into the air with a backwards flip, where he curled into a ball. Before he could hit the ground, he charged at another robot, keeping himself in the battle.

The last robot fell to Sonic. He won the match.

"Noo! I lost!" Bokkun shouted as E-1000 picked him up. "I'll get you for this... Idioooot!"

"Great job, Sonic!"

Sonic held a thumb up and winked at his team. "Let's take this chess game!"

"Right!" Tails happily agreed.

"R8, move up two," ordered the doctor.

"Knuckles, move beside R8."

"Bocoe, move up two."

"Yes, sir, Dr. Eggman!" the silver robot said as he complied with his master's request.

"Knuckles, take R6!" Tails ordered, far more confident than at the beginning of the game. _We almost have him!_

Knuckles moved into the square and the referee chose the next game. It landed on yet another game battle. _All right!_ Knuckles thought as he took the game system E-1000 offered. He and his opponent each placed one on their head and looked at the game this time. It was a first-person shooter. Without much hassle, the game loaded them in a dark, dreary complex.

Knuckles didn't even bother with the guns—he felt strong enough with his fists in this form. He kept his back to a wall as he slowly moved, glancing around for R6. He cautiously snuck through the dark grounds, watching for his enemy.

_Clank!_ Something sounded behind him. Knuckles threw himself behind a nearby column as gunshots fired all around. A brigade of bullets destroyed the edge of the column and put holes in the wall behind it. As soon as the robot stopped firing, Knuckles rolled out of his cover and ran down the nearest hall. The robot chased after, firing its gun. A bullet hit Knuckles' arm—naturally, it didn't hurt in the virtual reality world, but his Hit Points bar flashed before his eyes. He rounded a corner.

The robot quickly turned it as well, but it stared down a long, empty hallway. Confused, the robot glanced around, trying to figure out where the echidna ran off to. It shot rapidly in all of the shadows down the corridor, but it hit nothing. The hallway was too long for Knuckles to have already gone through, and yet he was nowhere in sight, nor in the shadows. The robot cautiously walked forwards, glancing around as it did so.

"I don't have to be in the shadows to hide!" a voice came. Knuckles emerged from the wall and punched the robot down, easily destroying its entire HP.

"Where did he... come from?" Sonic inquired, astonished.

"There's a glitch in the wall of that hallway," Tikal explained. "There is one square of wall that people can go in, which makes a _great_ hiding spot."

"The glitches make the game a lot more interesting," Knuckles added as he took off the helmet. E-1000 collected the systems and took R6 off the field. Knuckles stood in the square, staring at the Bishop, and perfectly diagonal of the doctor.

In order to distance himself from the hotheaded echidna and make sure that he didn't become trapped, Eggman moved himself into the only square he could legally move to.

"Sonic, push him back!"

"I'm on it!"

"Check, Dr. Eggman," Tails announced once Sonic was in place.

"Don't be too rash, now..." Eggman said as he moved back into the square he had previously stood in.

"Come back here!" Sonic yelled as he ran after the doctor.

"Wait, Sonic—!" Tails called, but it was too late—Sonic already stood in the same square Eggman had just left. Eggman smirked.

"Knight, get rid of him."

The Knight slowly entered the square. Sonic jumped back to the edge of the square. "All right! What's the battle?"

E-1000 answered Sonic with a display on its screen: Quick-Draw-Water-Gun.

"The rules of this game are simple," Eggman announced as E-1000 handed the combatants water guns. "You will step away from each other on a three count. After the last step, you will spin around as fast as you can and shoot water. The first to shoot the other one wins."

_Quick-draw, huh? This'll be a piece of cake!_ Sonic thought as he stared at his water gun. _Too bad it's made of the two things I hate most... ick... Well, I'll work with it for the match._ He and the Knight then positioned themselves in the center of the square, standing back-to-back.

"3..." Eggman started, and each of the fighters took a step away from each other. "2..." Another step. "1... Shoot!"

Sonic, deciding to show off, flipped so his hand hit the ground and shot the water gun with the other hand. The water hit Dr. Eggman, who immediately complained.

"You stupid hedgehog! Now I'm all wet!"

"Oops... sorry!" Sonic said as he looked around, still upside down. However, the Knight was nowhere in sight. Sonic jumped back to his feet, confused; as soon as he landed, he got a mouthful of water from above. He stared up to see the Knight descending down like an angel, her cloak whipping around her in the wind as she struggled to keep her hood on in the wind. Blue high heels hit the ground, and the ghost then organized her cloak.

"The winner is the Knight!" Dr. Eggman announced as E-1000 descended on the two for both the water guns and Sonic. The blue hedgehog, not wanting to be carried by the thing, easily dodged its hand and ran off of the board himself, where he took a seat to watch the rest of the match.

"Hey, don't lose, okay?" Sonic called up to those remaining on his team.

"Don't worry, Sonic! I'll make her pay for beating you!" Amy assured her friend. A small blush lit her cheeks. _Wait... should I? I love Tim... but that doesn't stop Sonic from being my friend, right...? So, as a friend, I should avenge his defeat!_

Tails thought as he stared at the board. _I have to win this..._ "Amy—"

The Castle stepped from her square, her cloak dragging on the ground. She moved out two squares and stood her ground. _All right..._ Tails thought. _That'll do for now. Now I just hope that Knight doesn't attack Amy...!_

Eggman contemplated his moves. _I could just get rid of Amy now..._

"Dr. Eggman," a voice said from beside the large doctor. He looked down to see the Bishop standing there, the only one of the three enigmas to still stand in his starting position. "May I move?"

"I don't see why not... R7! Out of his way!"

The robot obeyed and moved one square up.

_Knuckles is still protecting Amy..._ Tails thought. "Paul, move out one."

"Interesting move... all right."

The Bishop then moved on his only escape route, putting him diagonal from Amy Rose.

"Tails, let me take one of these creeps!"

"But Amy—"

"I'm going in! They're going to be sorry!"

"Wait, Amy—" Tails held his head as the headstrong young girl rushed in to battle the Bishop.

E-1000 displayed the new challenge: Ring Grab.

"E-1000 will drop rings. The person to get the most rings wins," explained the doctor.

The match started as E-1000 did its duty. Amy jumped up, grabbing the rings before the young ghost could take any. She threw some on her arms and continued grabbing, trying to get as many as possible.

A wind rustled past her. The wind grew stronger and stronger, pulling at the rings. Amy reached to grab a ring, only to have it wrought from her grasp by the wind. She spun her head to watch it go, her small pink spikes whipping around in the ferocious wind. She gripped her dress down as she landed so that it wouldn't fly up too much.

Amy soon found where the wind came from. The Bishop held what looked almost like a large egg in his hands, but a chicken head sucked air in. Rings came with the air, popping into the chicken gun.

"W-wha? That's not fair!" Amy yelled out, distressed. The rings flew over to the Bishop.

The last ring dropped, and once he sucked the ring up, the Bishop shut off his vacuum.

"And the winner is... the Bishop!"

Amy glared at the Bishop angrily. "That wasn't fair!" she yelled, holding her hammer up. E-1000 scooped the girl up, making her yelp. She then yelled down, "You cheated!"

"Sorry, Amy," the Bishop said, surprising her. "I just wanted to try that thing out..." The Bishop laughed, which only made Amy angrier. She screeched furiously, fuming.

_Eggman's built himself a fortress... I have to break it down!_ "Paul, charge straight ahead! We have to get through!" Tails ordered.

"All right," the boy agreed as he ran up the squares. Soon he stood in the same square as R5, and E-1000 chose their battle type: Fighting.

"W-what?"

"But he's just a normal human...!" Sonic's group burst out in protest.

"Dr. Eggman, you said the normal humans wouldn't have to fight...!" Tails pointed out.

"Oops, I lied!" Eggman said, not sounding sorry at all. "Too bad..."

E-1000 counted down.

"Paul, get out of there. I don't care if you lose... leave the square before you get hurt!" Tails yelled.

Paul glanced back at the fox, and then back at the robot. He spread his feet out in a fighting stance, and he reached a hand into his jacket. "I'll win this," he said, determined.

"Paul, don't!" Knuckles yelled out, worried about his friend.

"Paul..." Rouge muttered from the sidelines.

"Start!" Eggman called out. R4 shot at Paul, who quickly jumped into the air and safely out of the way. Paul's hand moved so fast that Tails never got to see what it held—a glint of sunlight reflecting from the air gave him the only hint. Paul landed in the square right before the robot burst into flames, defeated.

"He..."

"...beat it...?"

"But... _how_?" Sonic stared, flabbergasted. "Did anyone see what he used?"

_Oh of course!_ Knuckles thought, a grin on his face. _I should've known... that's just like you, Paul._

"Great job, brother!" Eric cheered.

"Yay, you made the robot go _boom_!" Brandon added.

"Continue the chess match," Paul said as E-1000 disposed of the remains of the other robot.

"R-right!" Tails agreed. "Check!"

"We'll see about that..." Eggman said as he floated into Paul's square. E-1000 obediently chose their next match: Sudoku.

"This is operated in the same manner as Tic-Tac-Toe. We will each get a board, and the first one to finish the puzzle wins," Eggman explained. E-1000 lowered a board for each of them and counted off. As soon as it started, each started thinking and writing in numbers on the screen using their fingers. Eggman completed his first, making him the winner. E-1000 grabbed Paul and threw him off of the board. "Your move, Tails," Dr. Eggman pointed out.

_Just me, Knuckles, and..._ "Castle, its your turn! Move right two!" The Castle obeyed without a word. "Check."

"Bocoe, protect me."

"Yes sir, Dr. Eggman!" the faithful robot said as he placed himself between the doctor and the ghost.

"Castle, attack Bocoe!"

She walked forwards until she finally reached the square. E-1000 cycled through the possibilities until it chose Dots.

The two challenged off on the same board used for Tic-Tac-Toe and Sudoku, only this time playing Dots. They battled for squares. In the end, the Castle won with the most squares. E-1000 plucked the sad Bocoe from the board.

_Well... I only have two more to take out..._ Eggman thought confidently. He calmly floated forwards until he hovered in the same square as the Castle.

_Come on, Castle... you have to do this,_ Tails thought desperately,_ or Knuckles and I will become sitting ducks!_

E-1000 cycled through the options until it finally reached a verdict: Fighting. The robot counted them down.

As soon as the match started, Eggman smirked and jammed down a button on his machine. A laser shot out of the front of his machine and straight for his opponent. The girl faded out at the last moment until she was transparent; the laser passed straight through the small ghost. She hardened again and took advantage of Eggman's shock to reach her cloaked arm through an opening in the doctor's machine. Eggman jerked the controls back and pulled his machine up until the Castle no longer reached into his machine.

Over her head, he re-aimed, only this time he went for a different button. "Let's see you dodge this...!" Eggman said as he hit the button. His machine started charging up, but then the laser blinked out on him. Eggman stared, dumbfounded. "Why isn't it working?" he demanded as he hit the button a few more times.

_Bam... bam... boom!_ Explosions went off in his machine like dominoes, one after another. He drew his arms back in alarm and stared at the machine, wondering what was happening to it. The whole machine buckled and then exploded from the inside, sending Eggman up into the air. He yelled as he flew.

"Dr. Eggman!" his three faithful robots yelled, while everyone just stared in awe. Shadow's eyes met the hood of the green girl, amazed.

"How did you...?"

The girl said nothing, but all eyes were on her.

"The game is over," she finally said after a moment of silence. She turned and walked over to the Bishop, the Knight following her. "Let's go."

_Remind me not to make _her_ mad...! How did she _do_ that, though...?_ Sonic wondered as he watched the three. _Can they _all_ do things like that...?_

The Bishop stalled. Tails couldn't hear him as he gazed at the group of ghosts, but he read the Bishop's lips, which were barely in sight, to see what he said: "Y-y-you... you can _do_ that? What did you do exactly...?" Tails missed something at the end, but the shock was already cast upon him. _Wait, the Bishop didn't know, either? But aren't they working together?_

The three cloaked people turned from the board and walked off, leaving everyone in shock.

Something then hit Sonic. "HEY! Where'd Eggman go? He owes us a Chaos Emerald!"

----

"Great work, you three," the man in the black cloak said as three ghosts approached him. The four stood on a building at the edge of the city, watching Sonic and the others below them. "But now it's time for the real chess game... right, Castle,"—he glanced at the girl in green—"Bishop,"—his sight turned to the boy in red—"and Knight?"—he watched the tall girl in blue. "Only in this one, you don't work for the pawns... you work for me, the King." Wind blew past the cloaks of the four and down the building as they watched the pawns the one known as the King referred to.

----

That's it for the chess game! I haven't started the next chapter, but I have a plan, so I'll work on that as soon as possible. (You have time to think about the challenge!) XD' Oh yeah, and I think you all know by now what Paul used to defeat R4... Well, I hope you all enjoyed this game! Please come back when I get the next chapter up: A Quest for a Quest.

Good luck!  
Sonic Triple Kingdom  
-Ayame


	12. A Quest for a Quest

o.o' Wow, this is amazingly one of my longer chapters! I had a tiny bit of a writer's block when making it, too... XD' Anyway, sorry it took so long! I have quite a few announcements today... skip past them if you want, but you might be missing something important...

Again, thank you all for your reviews! They make me so happy and determined to get through any tough spots or writers blocks!

Next on the list... the _Avans Challenge_. This is the last chapter for guessing, so guess well!

Hint for the first part: It's not Spanish (that leaves one continent!)

Hint for the second part: I made the name using two words that are a part of making a character in DnD.

Okay, now that that's over with, I have one more thing before the story... As Eggman will announce in this chapter, there will be a play later on... while trying to figure out who would play what part, I decided to let you guys help me vote! On top of that, I'm adding more characters into the play so that you can be a part of Eggman's class and nominate yourself. If you want to be in the class, just tell me in a review. I'll put more details for that in my profile.

As for the voting, we're starting with female nominations... there are four female parts, five male parts, and ten 'either' parts. Nominate the person you think would be funniest.

The female parts: The Maiden, the Thief, the Hero's Girlfriend, and the Maiden's Mother.

All right, I think that's it... if not, it can wait 'til the next chapter. I've taken up your reading space enough. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, or any other character from the Sonic games or Sonic X (including their human forms). They're owned by Sonic Team and SEGA.

**--A Quest for a Quest--**

"I-it's gone!" Henry exclaimed, his room a complete mess. Papers fluttered everywhere, books and tapes thrown all over the floor, on top of layers of clothes. He desperately dug, but to no avail. "The video of the picnic... it's not here anymore!"

----

"That stupid Eggman... he owes us a Chaos Emerald!" Sonic complained as they sat in the workshop. Tails poured the small group some water and then handed the cups to those sitting there—Sonic, Cream, and Cheese. He took his own cup and sat down at the table as well.

"How are we going to find him?" Cream asked.

"I'll stalk him until I can find where he's hiding it!"

"You'd be noticed if you do that," Tails pointed out. "Even as a human, it's not hard for someone as smart as he is to tell if someone's following him—and then that'd give you away."

"...Fine, then I'll force it outta him!"

Tails sighed. "I'm not sure force is the best way... With Shadow and Rouge on his side, it'll only be a stand still."

"Not if we get the Castle, Bishop, and Knight to help! They have those awesome powers!"

"I don't think they can all do that..."

"Eh?" Sonic and Cream stared at the fox, confused.

"Before they left... I saw the Bishop ask how the Castle did that."

"Wait, _he_ doesn't even know...?" Sonic asked, appalled.

Cream and Cheese held onto each other, shivering. "Where does she get that power, then...?"

"Chao..."

"I don't know... but until we at least figure out what it is, we want to make sure she's our friend, not our enemy."

"She's been helping us so far, though, right?" Sonic pointed out.

"Yes, but no doubt Eggman will also be seeking her help after that display."

"We have to stop him!" Cream declared. "We have to make sure she knows how bad he is!"

"Chao!"

"And... just how are we supposed to keep track of that...?" Sonic asked. "And also, that jerk still owes use an emerald..."

"Leave _that_ to me..." Tails told his friend, a grin on his face. Sonic, Cream, and Cheese stared at the young boy questioningly.

----

Meanwhile, Dr. Eggman worked hard to fix his machine. The smell of grease and oil filled the room, chasing Rouge and Shadow away. Tools covered the floor around Eggman's feet, and he constantly changed his instrument of choice. Decoe and Bocoe stood at his side, trying to help the evil doctor figure out what the Castle had done.

"Hm? What's this?" Eggman finally said.

"Have you found something, Dr. Eggman?"

"What did you find?"

Eggman grabbed a blunt tool and stuck it in his machine. He pulled with all of his might, but whatever he was pulling only budged a little. Still, it was enough for him. "Look in there, Decoe, Bocoe."

The two robots glanced in, just as their master instructed. They soon pulled back, alarmed.

"It _can't_ be!"

"It _is_!"

"What'll we do?"

"We're doomed!"

"What's wrong?" Eggman asked the two, confused.

"T-t-that!" the two robots chorused apprehensively, pointing at the machine.

"What's so bad about it? Now that we know what she does..."

The two faithful robots exchanged panicky glances.

----

Timothy Parker dozed off in class again. _Geez, this is boring... and I have more important things I could be doing!_ He felt very tired, and listening to an evil, old doctor was not on his To-Do list. Tim suddenly grinned as a though crossed his mind. _Who every thought I'd be a superhero saving the world from my demented teacher? A month ago I was just a normal boy..._ Tim touched his blue hair, deep in thought. _...or was I?_

"Listen up, class!" Eggman hollered, snapping Tim back to reality. "We have something we need to start preparing for now!"  
_Aww great, don't tell me it's a project..._ Tim thought dryly.

"Our class will be putting on a play."

The class burst out in astonished whispers. "What? A play? Really?"

"I wonder what play it is!"

"I hope I get to be the main character..."

"A play! How romantic!" said Emily, her eyes shining. "Tim will be the knight in shining armor and I, the damsel in distress! Oh, it'll be so perfect!"

"_Quiet_!" Eggman bellowed, and the class quickly resumed its silent air. With the silence, Eggman continued, "We will perform a myth I'm sure all of you have _at least_ heard of by now... _The Heart of the Universe_."

_Ah! I know that one!_ Emily thought.

_Interesting choice... I like it already!_ rolled through Ruby's head.  
_...I _must_ get the main part!_ both girls thought to themselves, determined.

"To keep things fair, we will vote on the parts," Eggman announced. "First we need to nominate people..." As the doctor talked, he passed out sheets of paper with the roles written on them. "Just write the name of the person you want to nominate in the blank. We will vote once I've had time to organize the nominations."

_This is perfect! Now I get to be the hero and Kevin will be the bad guy that I defeat!_ Tim thought happily.

_Let's just put Tim as the bad guy... and I can be the hero!_ Kevin thought as he marked his paper.

Tim wrote names, putting his whole group for any good person and Kevin's group for any adversary. _Hero's girlfriend... _definitely_ not Emily... maybe I should just leave that one blank... either Sam or Emily for the Kid, then..._ Tim thought as he marked, trying to give his friends the best parts. _Oh, I should put Emily in for the Maiden! That way she can't get mad at me and won't be my girlfriend! And Alice can be her mother!_ Tim continued on to Kevin's group, now. _Should Kevin be the Evil Leader or the Archenemy...? Wait, what's the difference?_ He stared down the long list. _Geez, this is a lot of people... I guess minor parts are included... I didn't know plays could have this many!_ He read through all of the characters. _The Kid? What kind of person is that, anyway...?_ "...Is this the whole cast list?" Tim heard himself ask.

"Different editions have slightly different cast—some say there were more people in the tale, some say there were less," the doctor explained. "For the edition we're reading, this is the whole cast minus the extras. Those in the class who do not get one of these parts will be an extra."

"All right! This'll be so much fun!" cheered Mike.

"Just vote for me to be the Maiden!" Ruby told her friends.

"Already did, Rubs," said Mike. The boy then spun around in his chair to come face to face with Henry. "Hey, Movie Boy, what'd'ya wanna be?"

Henry stared down at the list, not paying attention. "I don't care..."

Mike stared, surprised. "Are you okay? You seem a little down..."

"I can't find the video..."

"What video?"

"The one of our picnic with Sonic and his friends..." Henry admitted.

"...What? You've _lost_ that?" Mike burst out, making everyone turned. Henry turned bright red and stared down at his desk. "Err... I mean..." Mike said, trying to figure out how to downplay his outburst.

"Do you have something to share with the class, Michael?" Dr. Eggman asked loudly.

"Uh... just that... this looks like an interesting play! Lots of parts..." Mike lied, knowing how miserable he must've sounded. He then glanced back at his friend. _I wonder if there's something we can do to cheer Henry up..._ he thought, but he had no idea of how to get Sonic to pose for the camera again. _Maybe something that doesn't have to do with Sonic...? ...Ah! I've got it!_

----

"Pleeeeeease?" Mike later begged.

"I told you, my father won't go for it," argued Kevin. "He _never_ lets us do that... Why can't you just wait like everyone else?"

"Because Henry's having a bad day."

"Why? What happened?"

Mike explained the situation to Kevin. _I know a good way to remedy that one... but I can't tell Mike... I'll just let him try talking to Dad about it, and when Dad refuses, Mike has no choice but to give up,_ Kevin thought. "So just how do you plan on getting Dad to agree?"

"I don't."

"You don't?"

"Nope."

"So... how is this supposed to work then?"

"Easy! We'll..." Mike leaned closer and eagerly whispered something to his friend.

Kevin backed up, his face full of astonishment. "You have _got_ to be _crazy_!"

"Do _you_ want to buy him a new camera? C'mon, he'll be the luckiest kid alive!"

"Wait, he's lost his _camera_, too? Not _just_ the film?"

"Thaaaat's right. His camera and all of his film having to do with Sonic. Although, you probably _could_ buy him a camera..."

"And what if I say we throw _both_ of your crazy ideas out and talk to the others about it?"

"Aww, c'mon, Kevin! Would you rather me talk to _Ruby_ about this? You know who she'll side with..."

"...On second thought, which one of those ideas is least crazy?"

"Let's just try my first idea and I'll leave you alone, 'kay?" Mike asked happily.

"You just want to try it out..."

"Yep! And make Henry feel better while I'm at it! It's a great plan, don't'cha think?"

"Why do I have such weird friends...?" Kevin wondered out loud, not only thinking of Mike, but of Sonic as well.

Watching them from the top of a building stood the Castle, her green cloak flowing in the wind.

"Hey, check this out!" a boy called from behind her. The short ghost turned to find the Bishop hurrying towards her, Henry's video camera in hand. Following behind him ambled the Knight. "Look at this! This technology is amazing! This camera is so small and yet holds so much! And this screen—you wouldn't know it was so big from the outside! The quality it records in is excellent! You should see the videos on here—they can even play straight to the TV without being converted into a video cassette or DVD! And you see this? You can add video effects while recording with this! And set the time for when the video effects will take place... that way, you can set them even for a scene that's already happened! And the zoom..."

The Castle giggled, surprising the Bishop and the Knight. Her giggle turned into a full out laugh, and the Bishop soon started laughing with her. "Oh gosh, I didn't realize how I sounded!" he said while laughing.

"What's so funny?" the Knight asked the other two kindly.

"I sounded like Tails for a second there!"

The Knight giggled as well. "The fox? He does seem to know a lot about technology..."

"Ah, that's right! Did you manage to get the videos out of the camera?" the Castle asked the boy.

"Yep! We can return this now," he answered, pointing to the camera.

"All right! Let's head over to Henry's house now!" the girl in green declared.

----

After school, Kevin, Ruby, John, and Mike waited for Paul to finish chess club. After the club, he attempted to clean up quickly while Miles took his time. _Some of us are in a hurry..._ Paul thought, annoyed, as he watched the young boy clean up. No one could leave until it was clean so that one person wouldn't be left with the duty. Paul grabbed as much as he could and quickly stuffed them in their appropriate containers. Miles sighed, exasperated, as he neatened things up behind his enemy. No one in the club said a word—they could all feel the tension between the two top players.

Paul reached for the last chessboard and secured it in his hands. He jerked on it to take it to the rest of the boards only to find it pulling the other way. He turned to see that Miles also held on to the board, also astonished at the board's stall. Blue eyes and yellow eyes met over the chessboard, both glaring. "If you don't mind, I'm in a hurry," Paul said coldly as he yanked the board free. Miles shrugged and grabbed his bag. The members of the club started leaving, most either silent or whispering until the rivals were separate. Paul ran down the hall to find his friends waiting outside for him. Miles, however, trudged down the hall slowly, allowing everyone, including the chess club sponsor, Dr. Eggman, to walk in front of him. Miles casually turned into a bathroom.

The kid stopped at the sink and began washing his hands, glancing around as he did so. Upon deciding it was safe, he closed his eyes. Two tails emerged before two ears popped out of his head. His skin changed to fur as he shrunk to the appropriate size. Soon enough, he was in his full fox form. He slung his bag over his shoulder and quickly crept to the bathroom door. He reached into his bag and pulled out what looked like a paper airplane. The "paper airplane" was made out of chips and machines—it was made to latch onto other machines and disable them. Knowing where the camera was, he charged out and pitched the airplane at it. The plane hit its mark and the camera burst with electricity. It sloped down, shutting off. _I better get some more quickly or they'll suspect me..._ Tails thought.

The fox bolted down the halls, his tails giving him extra speed, throwing the airplanes at every camera—he had noted where all of them sat earlier that day. Once he wrecked enough havoc on the cameras, he stopped in the hall and looked around, gaining his bearings again. _That'll keep them from narrowing it down to the bathroom camera... now to the front office!_ With that in mind, he flew down the hallway. Upon reaching the office, he stopped behind the door, his back to it. Hearing a commotion inside, he placed a fox ear on the door and listened in.

"The cameras are out!"

"Which ones?"

"There seems to be a path of them... but they lead to no where."

"Who would attack the school at _this_ time?"

"Some crazy person, that's for sure. I'm going to go check on the cameras."

The door started opening up, surprising the young animal. He gasped as the door swung open.

A few men walked out of the office, seeing nothing out of the ordinary. They hurried down the hall and towards the disabled cameras. Above them hovered Tails, his two tails spinning like a helicopter. _That was close... Now time to get to their back computers._ Tails opened his bag and took out a smoke bomb. He took the pin out and threw the grenade towards the men down the hall. The smoke exploded around them, making a white cloud in the middle of the school. The men called for help and everyone rushed out of the office to see what was going on. Tails took this chance to swiftly enter the office. He slid into a back room, where the main office computers were kept. His tails stopped and he eased into a chair, taking a hold of the mouse. _Already logged on, huh? That was nice of you..._ he thought happily as he clicked the "Start" button.

"Hey! Who are you?" a man demanded as Tails heard a gun cock. The fox spun around, dazed and confused, to see a security guard aiming a gun at him. "Y-you! Aren't you one of that hedgehog's friends?" The security guard stared, confused at this intrusion, before regaining his hard composure. "Just what do you think you're doing, attacking a school?"

"Sorry, but there's something I have to find," Tails explained; right after his words, he jumped out of the chair and kicked it back into the guard with his foot. He flew above the computers as the guard's finger hit the trigger; the bullet shot through the ceiling. The guard hit a wall and, after a moment of pain, aimed his gun at Sonic's friend. Tails threw out another smoke bomb, filling the room up. The guard coughed up smoke, soon losing the fox in the white fog.

Tails held a handkerchief to his mouth and nose, trying to keep from coughing. He seized the mouse of the computer and quickly searched through the programs on the computer. The monitor was hard to see, even with his fox eyes—he squinted to see the names of the programs. Finding the one he wanted, he clicked on it. He then rustled to his bag, but naturally, he couldn't find what he was looking for when he needed it. _Come on, I'm running out of time..._ he thought as he quickly rummaged through his bag, feeling for the object. He finally found it; he pulled a USB drive out of his bag and thrust it into the computer's USB plug. He downloaded the files he wanted to the drive as the fog started to dissipate. His eyes watered—he couldn't hold in the coughs for much longer. He heard footsteps and voices outside as the file slowly downloaded. _Hurry..._ he watched the bar fill up, letting out a few muffled coughs.

"So... you're still here..." he heard the guard say in between coughs. "Where are you, fox?"

The file finished as the door burst open. The fog, though still thick, was light enough to see through now.

"What's going on in here?" a woman demanded.

"There's a fox! One of that hedgehog's friends!"

The adults searched around the room, but none saw the fox. "He has to be around here somewhere..."

Tails hid under a computer table, the tablecloth hiding him perfectly from view. He watched the feet walk around as he still held the handkerchief tight around his nose and mouth. A cough bit the back of his throat. _Not now..._ he scolded himself, trying so hard to keep it in.

"Did he already leave?"

"What did he want?"

"Search the hallways! Find the fox!"

"Yes, Sir!"

The feet started exiting the room in pairs. Tails silently watched, his throat feeling more and more scratchy every minute. He couldn't take it any longer—his throat was dying; he coughed all of it out at once.

Before he could regain himself, the tablecloth was lifted and a flashlight shined in his eyes, blinding him for a second.

"I found him!"

----

"What are you guys doing here?" Henry asked nonchalantly. He stood just inside his house while all five of his best friends stood outside, greeting him.

"Come on, we're going over to Kevin's house!" Mike announced.

"What for...?"

"It's a surprise!"

"Wouldn't it be smarter to bring it here?" Kevin asked.

"Good point!" agreed Mike, "All right, Kevin, we'll wait here while you go work your magic!"

"_What_?"

"Why don't I come help you?" offered Ruby.

"No, you stay _here_!" Kevin ordered. "I'll go." _Great! Now I can just say I couldn't get a hold of it!_

"Can we come in, Henry?" John asked politely.

"Uh, sure..."

"And Kevin will be back with a surprise!" Mike said.

"Uh, yeah... soon..." Kevin said and he quickly took his leave.

Kevin walked down the street, alone, towards his house. _I probably won't even go home... Maybe I should go check on the Master Emerald... I feel it still on Angel Island, though, so no one's touched it yet... good. The doctor and that stupid thief seem to be more interested in the Chaos Emeralds... I'll let Sonic deal with that one._ A reflection then caught Kevin's eyes, making him stop. "Why are you following me, Ruby?"

"All right, all right... you caught me," she said as she walked out of the shadows, her hands up.

"How could I _not_? After knowing you for so long, I doubt anyone could get past me," Kevin explained, irritated. _...Except that stupid bat... but she tried to steal the Master Emerald when I was _sleeping_! That's cheap!_

"I guess that's why I can't steal anything from you..."

"You mean you've _tried_?"

"What, I thought you could catch me?" Ruby pointed out.

"Ruby! How many times do I have to tell you—"

"Stealing is bad, wear a sweater when you go out, give things to others before yourself, blah blah blah," Ruby mocked. "I'm a big girl now, Kevin. I don't need you acting as my father."

"Then why don't you set some moral standards! You know what, never mind, I have to hurry. I don't have time to argue with you about this right now."

"Yes, let's go!"

"I never said you were coming with me!" screamed Kevin.

"But I want to visit your sister," Ruby lied.

"Fine, whatever." The boy began walking again, though this time quicker and firmer. Ruby walked behind him, a mischievous grin on her face. _Yes, Kevin,_ she thought,_ I _have_ tried to steal something from you... and I continue to try... but I'm beginning to doubt that I can... I only hope that this last try works. If not, we'll still be best friends forever, right?_

----

"...So how'd you escape?" Sonic asked as he, Amy, Cream, and Cheese stared intently at Tails. Tails sipped on his milk, savoring the taste.

"Did you use another smoke bomb?" Cream asked.

"Chao?"

"Or, did you attack the guards?" Amy questioned.

"Or maybe you just charged past them at super speed!" suggested Sonic.

"Actually..." Tails said slowly, "someone helped me."

"Who?" all three of his friends demanded, shocked.

"Well... I don't know..."

_"Let the fox go," said a man cloaked in all black. The humans standing around stared in awe at the newcomer. The man walked over to the table and knelt down. "I'm trusting you and Sonic to gather all of the Chaos Emeralds... hurry."_

_"Huh? Who are—"_

_"Hey, what do you think you're doing? Just who are you?" a guard demanded as he held his gun up. Many others followed suit._

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," the man in black said. "You'd just destroy your computers." He grabbed the fox and picked him up, holding the animal under his arm. The man held his other hand up, aiming his palm at the guards as Tails watched curiously. He saw nothing else, though—Tails soon blacked out.

"And the next thing I remember... I was waking up in the forest," Tails admitted.

Cream shivered. "That sounds creepy..."

"Just who _was_ that guy, then?" Amy asked.

"I don't know..."

"What about the data? What exactly were you trying to do?" Sonic asked, confused.

"Dr. Eggman works there, so I was trying to find information on him. I should have where he lives, which means we can stop on his doorstep for the Chaos Emerald."

"We have his address now? That's great! What else do we have? Do we have his phone number?" Sonic asked eagerly.

"Uhh... yes... why?" Tails said, flabbergasted by Sonic's interest.

"Isn't it obvious? Ha, now I can torture the big egg with prank calls!" Sonic explained happily. "Now if only I had that stupid black hedgehog's number... I would _love_ to give him what he deserves..."

"Sonic, that's _not_ what these are for..." Tails said. "We have to get that Chaos Emerald back. I need to prepare for our trip—we can plant some cameras in his house to keep an eye on him."

"You mean, you did all of that for information on Eggman?" Amy asked skeptically.

"How else were we supposed to find out how to get the Chaos Emerald from him?" Tails pointed out.

Amy rolled her eyes. "You _could_ have just asked me, you know. I happen to know where Eggman's base is."

"W-what?"

"Why didn't you tell us sooner?"

"How do you know, Miss Amy?"

"Chao?"

"I accidentally stumbled onto it before I met you. You wouldn't have had to do all of that if you had just come to me."

Sonic and Tails exchanged stunned looks, not knowing what to say. "...Oh..." Tails finally managed to say. Thinking about it, he added, "But maybe it _was_ a good thing... I met that man in black, after all."

"Great, another mystery man... I don't find that a good thing," Sonic said dryly.

"Maybe it's another mystery, but... if we can figure out who they are, then it might help explain other things... like why we were brought together after so long."

Everyone paused, deep in thought. Sonic was the first to break the silence: "Well, we're not learning anything by sitting around. Let's go get that Chaos Emerald. I'll leave the mystery junk to you..."

----

"Where should I put the camera?" the Bishop asked as he, the Castle, and the Knight stood in Henry's room.

"Somewhere not very obvious... in a drawer of some kind..." suggested the Castle.

The elder girl turned her attention outside. "They're not outside anymore... Knuckles and Rouge are walking off, but I don't see their friends..."

"Do you hear something?" the Bishop asked. All three stopped what they were doing and listened closely. They heard footsteps getting louder and louder...

"They're coming!"

"I thought they were going over to Knuckles'!" The doorknob started to turn. Out of options, the Bishop flung himself at the door and held it shut.

"Hey, what's going on?" Mike blurted from the other side of the door.

"It won't open...!" came Henry's voice.

"There's someone inside..." Paul's murmured voice sounded.

"What? Burglars? Open this door now, you scoundrels!" Mike hollered.

"Uh, wait... just what kind of burglars return things?" the Bishop asked his two companions.

The Castle held her head with hands gloved in green. "Never mind that... just drop the camera and let's get out of here!"

"Not so fast," a loud voice said from the opposite direction of Mike. Paul thrust himself through a window and landed face-to-face with the three cloaked people. "You three again... just what do you think you're doing?"

--

Meanwhile, Ruby and Kevin entered the Kevin's house. Ruby hurried upstairs towards Karen's room while Kevin headed to his father's workroom. _I guess I'm stuck with this now... wonderful..._ he thought dryly. As he strolled through the large living room, he failed to notice someone sitting on the couch.

"Welcome home, Kevin," a cold voice greeted. Kevin turned around, surprised, to find his mother sitting there.

"Uh... hi, Mom," he greeted nervously.

"And just where have you been?"

"Hanging out with friends..."

"These aren't the same friends that you were hanging out with for a few _days_ without calling, are they?"

_Urk! She's still mad about that..._ "No..."

"You and your sister are _never_ home anymore. On top of that, your grades are starting to suffer," Mrs. Hogosha said.

Kevin did not answer—he knew better than to argue with his mother when she was like this. Instead, he thought, _I know, I know, but that's why protecting the Master Emerald and school don't mix... You'd think Eggman's grading would suffer or something..._

His mother continued, "I know you're a teenager now, but you need to get your priorities straight. School comes before everything else. _Period_. If you need any help understanding something, you can ask me or your father. You're setting a bad example for your sister like this. I want both of you home more and _studying_, you understand?"

"Yes, Mother..." Kevin mumbled.

"Go up to your room and get started."

"But I have friends waiting for me—!"

"Then call them and tell them you won't be coming. You are not to step out of this house today, and you aren't to leave any other day until all of your homework and studying is done."

"_Mother..._ I can handle this myself! I have plenty of time!"

"Do not argue with me," his mother fought not to yell. "You can hang out with your friends _after_ your homework is finished—and _another_ day."

Kevin scowled, but arguing was pointless. He stormed to the kitchen, where he poured himself a drink. Just then, his watch started beeping; it startled him and caused his drink to spill all over the counter. Without answering, he cleaned up and then ran upstairs and into his room. Once the door was safely shut, he clicked a button to receive the message. "What is it?" Kevin demanded.

"Sheesh, sorry, didn't mean to wake you up..." Sonic said dryly, guessing why Knuckles sounded so angry.

"You okay, Knuckles?" asked Tails.

"No, now what do you want?"

"We're going to go get the Chaos Emerald back from Eggman," Sonic explained. "Wanna come?"

"That isn't a joy ride! I'm busy right now, and frankly, I don't _care_ about the Chaos Emeralds!"

"Geez, no need to yell, buddy. All right, we'll leave you alone now... See ya later, Knux!"

Kevin closed the connection. He walked over to Karen's room to explain what was going on to Ruby.

He never got there. The house alarm started going off. _What's going on?_ Kevin thought, distressed. He hurried to the top of the white stairs and looked down over the rail into the living room, where his parents stood. "What happened?"

"There's a thief in the house—hurry to the cellar!"

_A thief?_ Kevin thought, surprised. _Not again... I thought our security was better!_ After hearing his parents mention the study, Kevin hurried down the stairs as his parents grabbed guns. However, Kevin didn't go to the cellar as his parents told him to—once out of sight, he transformed into Knuckles the Echidna. "Sorry, Dad, but I hate the cellar!" Knuckles crawled into the dinning room and under the table. He banged his fist on a short wooden board once. The wood automatically shifted under the rest of the floor, leaving a keypad. Knuckles carefully entered numbers into the pad. The wood replaced itself over the pad and a door under the table fell open. Knuckles slipped down into it and lit a torch nearby. He then latched the door above himself. Here he had two directions: if he went to his right, he would be in the cellar; to his left, the secret passages in the house joined, allowing him to access some rooms in the house. _If I'm correct, we added one for Dad's study after that last thief... time to find out!_ He ran down the passage, which was _much_ easier for him to do now when he was shorter.

--

At Henry's house, Kevin's friends banged on Henry's door as the Bishop held it shut.

"I said... open up!" Mike yelled as he kicked the door.

Paul, however, stared at the intruders. "...What are you talking about?"

The Castle saw their escape and grabbed her two cohorts. The three ran as the door burst open towards the outside wall; they ran straight throw the wall.

"Where are they? Paul?" Mike demanded, hotheaded as usual.

Paul stared at his friends and blinked before coming back to reality. "They're outside... through the window!"

The boys jumped out of the window and, seeing the cloaked people on the run, ran after them.

"Come back here, you thieves!" the loud one of the group yelled.

"I bet they're the ones who took my camera!" agreed an angry Henry.

The three they chased then ran through the wall of a building, astonishing the boys. "W-what happened...?" demanded a nervous John.

"Were they... ghosts?"

"Wow! Real live ghosts!" Mike exclaimed happily. "Now _that's_ something Henry needs to video tape! C'mon, they must be on the other side!"

"Mike, I hope you realize that ghosts aren't alive," Paul mumbled dryly.

--

Just as he expected, Knuckles found a newly added passage to the study. Without waiting to find out if that's where the thief really was, he entered a code into a pad on the wall. The shelf in front of him moved aside to admit him into the room. He walked in and, once he stepped on a certain plank of wood, the shelf closed behind him. He stared around the study; his parents stood in there as well, aiming their guns at the red echidna.

"There's the thief! He figured out the codes to the secret passage!" Mr. Hogosha explained to his wife.

"W-what? I'm not the thief!" Knuckles attempted to explain, but he was soon bombarded with gunshots. Knuckles burst out the window and started running down the street.

"Come back here!" Mrs. Hogosha yelled behind him, but neither of the adults were able to run fast enough to keep up with Knuckles.

Knuckles continued running until he was a few blocks away. He leaned against a wall and breathed easily. _I can't believe they shot at me!_ he thought angrily. He then noticed something getting smaller and smaller ahead of him... Someone was running the other way... someone with bat wings... "H-hey! Come back here, Bat girl!" Knuckles yelled as he chased the bat down. She looked back to see him, surprise all over her face.

"Well, well, well, we meet again..." Rouge the Bat said. "I guess this means the Master Emerald isn't being guarded?"

"Wha? Don't think you can just go steal the Master Emerald!" Knuckles leapt through the air and threw a punch down at the girl. Rouge jumped out of the way as the echidna created a crater in the street. Knuckles didn't care—he cared more about the small bag the bat carried over her shoulder.

"So, what's in that pack?" he asked, trying to cover up who he really was. "Creating mischief again?"

"Maybe!" Rouge admitted cheerfully. "Unfortunately, this isn't for you!"

"Something tells me it's not for you, either!" Knuckles retorted.

Knuckles stepped forward and raised his fist up to attack the bat again as she quickly stepped into a defensive position. _Bam!_ Next thing Knuckles knew, he was on the ground with something heavy on top of him.

"Eh... whoops, sorry, Knuckles!" a male voice said. "Oww... Hey, can you get off of me?"

"Why don't _you_ get off of _me_!" Knuckles yelled angrily as he stood up, carrying everything on top of him with him. Two people yelped as they hit the ground. Knuckles stared down, scowling, to find the Bishop and the Knight sitting in the road. He turned his attention to where the bat previously stood to find the Castle on top of her. The Castle pulled herself up and then attempted to help Rouge up, but Rouge furiously knocked the hand away and stood up herself. Now, however, the bat didn't hold the precious bag: it lied on the ground, forgotten about by all except Knuckles.

"Sorry, we didn't mean to knock you down..." the Castle said.

"Then maybe you should watch where you're going!" argued Rouge. "We were in the middle of a fight!"

"Maybe it was good that we ran into you, then..." muttered the Knight.

"Don't call that a good thing!"

While Rouge argued with the three, Knuckles slipped around behind her and quietly made his way towards the back. He slowly reached out to it, happy to retrieve it safely.

Just as he closed his hand, the bag slipped away. Knuckles followed it with his eyes as it first moved to the side and then up. Behind the bag stood a someone in full black. The person held the back up high. Knuckles, alarmed by this newcomer, jumped back and into a fighting position. "Give that back!"

"Hm... maybe," the man said. "Why don't you fight for it, Knuckles the Echidna?"

"I'd be more than happy to—shaaa!" Knuckles threw a punch at the man in black, who easily moved out of the way.

"Too slow!" the man taunted.

The sound of a gun pierced the air and the man dropped the bag, bright red liquid oozing out of his hand. Knuckles turned to find the police watching them, his mother with them.

"You have ten seconds to leave the vicinity now, _leaving_ the bag behind, or we will deem you as dangerous persons."

"Let's go!" the man in black ordered the other three cloaked people. They ran on order while the man started walking away. He turned his head as he walked and explained to the bat and echidna, "I am known as the King... I'm sure I'll see you again, Knuckles the Echidna and Rouge the Bat." He then walked down the street.

Rouge spread her wings and took to the air, sad to have failed. Knuckles also left, running down another alleyway. _At least Dad gets _that_ back,_ he thought, remembering the bag on the ground. _I hope it's not ruined..._

Kevin knocked on the door to Karen's room, hoping that the girls were oblivious to the troubles he recently went through. No one answered. "...Ruby? Karen?" He knocked again, but there was still no answer. "Ruby! Karen!" he yelled as he slammed open the door. No one was in the room. He ran towards the staircase and glanced around, panicked. "Karen! Ruby!" _Maybe they went to the cellar..._ he thought, worried.

"What are you yelling about?" a female voice asked from behind him. Kevin spun around to find Ruby, Mike, Paul, Henry, and John standing in the door to his own room.

Kevin stared at them, flabbergasted. "Y-you're safe... wait, what are you all doing here...? Where's Karen...?" Kevin found himself at a loss of words.

"Ahaha! You should see your face!" Mike laughed. Ruby joined him in laughing.

"Karen's not here. She was never here to begin with," Kevin's best friend explained. "I guess she's out with friends or something... Oh, did you get the game?"

"No, and I'm not getting it anyway!" Kevin yelled. "And that still doesn't explain why _everyone's_ here!"

"We were chasing some ghosts," Mike explained, "but they got away... so since we were in the area, we decided to stop by and say hi! Ruby was the only one here, though... She said something about an alarm sounding?"

"There was a thief... Ruby, don't tell me you were alone up here while the thief was about!"

"What? It's no big deal. The thief never came this way, so I was fine."

As Kevin bickered with his friends, the front door opened and closed. Soon, Kevin's father ascended the stairs.

"Oh, hello!" he said kindly. "I didn't realize your friends were here, Kevin!"

"Hi, Mr. Hogosha!" Ruby greeted, glad to change topics. Kevin's other friends threw out their greetings as well.

"This is perfect! Maybe you kids can help me with something... You see, a thief tried to steal the new game my company's working on, and after all of the excitement, I was worried there might be some bugs... but I'm so busy working on everything that I might not be able to find them all before the release date! So maybe—"

"We'd be glad to help!" the friends burst out, excited.

"That's great! Then today's your lucky day—you get to be the first to try it!" Mr. Hogosha held up the bag and, from it, took out a video game cartridge. He entered the room, six eager teenagers following him, and the group sat down in Kevin's room and began to play.

----

Henry opened the door to his room and slowly walked in. He glanced around, thinking of the break-in earlier. That's when he noticed it: on the floor was his camera. Henry gasped and quickly scooped it up. He excitedly sat on his bed and looked through the memory, ecstatic. However, his happiness was short-lived as he found that his videos of Sonic no longer rested in the camera. Someone had deleted all of his important files. Henry sighed, feeling down again. _I had great shots, too... it would've made the top news... after all, _everyone_ wants to learn about those animals..._

Henry peeked up at the large moon, sad. His eyes widened and his grip tightened around his camera. He ran over to the window and brought the device up to his eye and started playing. Standing on a roof above the human boy, in front of the pale moon, stood a male echidna, his red dreadlocks waving in the wind as he stared through the night with a look of determination. He then leapt from the building; Henry attempted to follow him, but the echidna ran too fast and soon disappeared into the dark streets.


	13. Chaotic Reasoning

First and foremost, thank you all for your replies! They've made me so happy! And I'm so sorry for the long wait; I had a major writer's block during this chapter! But I finally got past it and was able to finish, and it turned out all right! Hopefully I won't be so long on the next chapter!

As for the contest (which has pretty much died by now, but... you guys deserve answers.)

First: 'Avans' is one of the many results I found for 'good' in Romanian when I looked it up... it might be a little off, but I liked the sound of it, so I decided to go with it.

Second: In DnD, there's an alignment system... I chose 'good' as their last name because... they're the Chaotix. And good. So the chaotic good alignment fit them...

...Yeah... sorry, I know I probably fail at explaining and all... sorry!

And thank you for your nominations on the female parts! You may still nominate more for that if you wish! Now we'll start male nominations!

The male parts: the Hero, the Captain, the Doctor, the Evil Leader, and the Archenemy

Note: There are still more parts! There are parts for either gender coming up next! Also, please remember to nominate who you think would be funniest for that part... I plan on making the play as funny as possible.

Well, with all of that said, please enjoy the chapter!

Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, or any other character from the Sonic games or Sonic X (including their human forms). They're owned by Sonic Team and SEGA.

**--Chaotic Reasoning--**

_"Does this thing work?!" a voice called through pitch black darkness._

_"We're not picking up any picture..." another, much cooler, voice answered._

_"Work, camera, work!" a third voice, this one hyper, began chanting._

_"Let me see it!" demanded the first person._

_"Be careful!"_

_White dots flashed in the darkness before vanishing just as quickly as they came._

_"I think we need a new camera..."_

_"This _is_ a new camera! I bought it after we talked to the Castle!"_

_"Is everything on it right? Are we pressing the right buttons?"_

_"Let me try!"_

_"Brandon, _no_!"_

_"I got it, I got it!"_

_"Brandon, don't drop it! I paid good money for that thing!"_

_"Don't throw it around!"_

_"Aww, you guys are no fun..." After a pause, the young boy continued, "Uh, why is the lens so dark?"_

_"Is that... a lens cover?"_

_"Eh heh heh... Of course it is! As a good detective, I knew all along that it was there! I was just... testing your detective skills!" The darkness moved away from the newly proceeding light with a circular motion. Once it was gone, the light presented a cozy room and three colorful faces. The house was cluttered with books, tapes, clothes, dishes, and much more, but the furniture appeared to be very comfortable. The colors on the house matched quite nicely and, despite the color, there was plenty of room for movement._

_In front of the camera stood a crocodile, a chameleon, and a bee. The largest one was the crocodile. He was huge and green with a yellowish tint to his belly, mouth, and arms. His back was lined with red spikes all the way down to his tail. He wore a black headset and a golden chain. His gloves were white, though the insides, which folded over the top once past his wrist, were black with a yellow lining and a golden buckle. His shoes were also black, but they were lined with white. He looked nervous, trying to cover up his mistake._

_The chameleon glared sideways at the crocodile through yellow eyes, obviously doubting the larger reptile. His skin was purple with the exception of a brown stomach and mouth. A yellow horn jutted out of his forehead. Three spikes elegantly extended from his head. His gloves were also white, but each glove had a purple triangle on the back of his hand. On top of that, he wore armor past his wrist; the armor closest to his wrist was made of black cloth and had spikes on it, and expanding from that were three joined rectangles of silver metal. The metal connected to the black cloth that covered the front part of his arm due to the white bandages it was attached to. His shoes were purple with a black stripe and similar armor, only this time there were no rectangles—the white bandage circled around his ankle many times. He had dark purple spikes on his back and his tail curled away from his body._

_The smallest one, the bee, hovered in the air. He wore a black helmet lined in pink over his orange eyes. He helmet had two goggles, lined in orange, sitting on top of it. His vest was orange with a white color and a yellow zipper. Hanging from his collar was a cloth shaped and painted to look like a bee. His gloves shone white against the black inside, which could be seen where the gloves folded up at his wrists. His shoes were orange with one yellow stripe, and they were white on bottom. The top of the shoes, however, were black. His thin wings held the young bee up in the air, and he was careful not to sting his friends with his large stinger on accident. He threw his hands up in the air and cheered, "It works, it works!"_

_"We're the Chaotix Detective Agency," the crocodile announced to the camera. He quickly pushed his friends out of the way and posed as he said, "I'm Vector the Crocodile. I am the fearless leader of the Chaotix Detective Agency. My human form is Eric Avans, and I'm in college to become the greatest detective ever!"_

_"What will you do if Dr. Eggman gets a hold of this video?" the chameleon pointed out._

_"As a great detective, it is my job to make sure no enemy ever touches this," answered Vector. "You're next, Espio." Vector left the field of view of the camera and the chameleon entered it. The chameleon looked just like a ninja as he took his own special pose._

_"I am Espio the Chameleon. My human form is Paul Avans, Eric's brother, and I am in high school."_

_The bee charged in front of Espio, excitedly pointing to himself. "I'm Charmy Bee! I'm Brandon Avans, the youngest of the Avans brothers! I'm in elementary school, but I'm still a _huuuuge_ part in the Chaotix Detective Agency!"_

_Vector pushed his way back into the camera screen, making Charmy complain. "Our mission: to find out the identity of Sonic the Hedgehog. Start!" He pointed at the camera dramatically. After nothing happened, he whispered out of the side of his mouth, "Espio, Charmy, turn the camera off!"_

_"Aye, Captain!" Charmy answered happily as the screen rustled._

_"Welcome back, folks!" Vector suddenly greeted. Now he and Espio walked through a forest. "Here we are, on Angel Island, searching for Sonic and the others."_

_"Why do I have to carry the camera?" Charmy's voice complained._

_"We drew straws and you lost. Now stop complaining and hurry up!" Vector said._

_Charmy moaned, but continued carelessly following. The camera turned to and fro, scouting the forest surrounding the group._

_The screen bumped and then rapidly moved until it saw Vector standing still—Charmy had bumped into him. The screen backed up to show Espio standing his ground as well. Then it focused on something the young bee could see a little farther up—the Master Emerald, shining brightly in its shrine._

_"Is this it?" Vector asked._

_"This is it."_

_The three continued their trek up towards the beautiful emerald. Once on top of the shrine, Vector reached out to the shining jewel._

_"STOP!" a voice yelled loudly. "Don't touch the Master Emerald!"_

_The three turned around to find an angry red echidna charging towards the shrine. He bolted up the stairs faster than any _normal_ echidna and threw a punch at Espio, who barely dodged._

_"Wait! Don't attack us!" Vector pleaded, his hands up._

_"Who are you?!" the echidna, Knuckles, demanded. "Did Sonic send you?!"_

_"Huh?" the two reptiles and the bee chorused._

_"That jerk... Well, I have a _present_ for you to give him..." Knuckles said as he held up his fist eagerly._

_"Yikes!" Vector yelped. "Y-you don't have to do that! We didn't come for him—well, we did, in a way, but he didn't send us! We don't even know Sonic!"_

_"So then are you working for Eggman?!"_

_"No, we're not," Espio said. "We're not here against you, we simply came to meet you and the others. We're like you."_

_Knuckles lowered his fist. "Oh. Okay. Hey wait, who _are_ you? I thought we finally found everyone like us!"_

_"I'm Vector, this is Espio, and the one with the camera is Charmy."_

_"Hiii!"_

_"I'm Knuckles."_

_"Why are you so mad at Sonic, Knuckles?" Espio inquired._

_"First that jerk makes me go with him to get the Chaos Emerald back from Eggman—and we had to go to _two_ different places to find him—and then when I manage to get it, he demands that it's his."_

_"Slow down! Chaos Emerald?" Vector asked._

_"Yeah. This." Knuckles held up a shining red emerald. Though shaped like the Master Emerald, it was much, much smaller than the large gem. "It, like the Master Emerald, contains a lot of power. However, to fully unleash its power, you need all seven Chaos Emeralds."_

_"Two places?" Espio added._

_"Psst, Espio..." Vector pulled Espio and Charmy together so that Knuckles couldn't hear what they whispered. "Why are we interested in that?"_

_"We want a full documentary, don't we?"_

_"Oh... I knew that." Turning to Knuckles, he said, "Yes, what two places?"_

_"First we went to the base that Amy found, but when his two little robots said that he wasn't there, we followed the directions Tails had right to Eggman's front door."_

_"How'd you get the Chaos Emerald from him?" Charmy added._

_"We fought him. Then that _thief_ showed up to take the emerald, so I had to fight her over that. Eventually, she and Eggman got into an argument and I grabbed hold of the emerald. Then we snuck out while they were still arguing."_

_"What were they arguing about?"_

_"I don't know. Something about how Rouge isn't getting paid enough."_

_"And then you say Sonic demanded the Chaos Emerald...? Why didn't you give it to him?"_

_"Good grief! What is this, twenty questions?!" Knuckles demanded._

_"We're detectives!" Vector yelled back. "It's our job to ask questions!"_

_"Well then I just won't answer!" Knuckles declared._

_"I think he didn't give it to Sonic because of stubbornness," Espio observed. "He reminds me of someone, but I can't quite place it... __Who are you?"_

_"Oh come on, like he'll just answer like that..." Vector muttered._

_"I'm..." Knuckles started. Vector stared, surprised. When Knuckles paused, all three leaned in closer, curiously. Or at least, the camera zoomed in a little closer to Knuckles. "I'm not going to tell you that! What kind of idiot do you think I am?"_

_Vector, Espio, and Charmy faltered, taken aback by his response. Or so can be assumed from the last, considering how the screen moved. Vector pulled the other two in for a huddle once again._

_"So what's Plan B?" Espio asked his leader._

_"It's an even better plan! It'll be the best plan for such a thing you've ever heard of! My detective skills will show us who all of them are in one fell swoop! It's... it's... it's..."_

_"You're stalling," Espio pointed out, his voice cold._

_"All right. I've got it now. We'll force it outta him!"_

_"Wouldn't that just make him even madder?"_

_"Well, with him and Sonic at odds, we have to make one of them mad to make the other happy, right?"_

_"Interesting point... which one should we help?"_

_"Sonic, of course! He has more people around him, so it'll be easier for us to find out things about them."_

_"Now we really _do_ sound like the enemy..." muttered Espio._

_"Hey, what are you guys whispering about?" Knuckles asked untrustingly._

_"Hold on, we're formulating a plan," Vector dismissed Knuckles' question with a sentence and a wave of the hand. He continued talking to his brothers._

_"How do you _ever_ pass detective school...?" Espio mumbled._

_"I pass because I'm the greatest detective around! You should see it as an honor to follow my plans!" the crocodile retorted. "Now listen closely..." Charmy unconsciously pushed the camera just far enough away so that it couldn't pick up their whispers. Eventually Charmy snapped the camera back over, like he just remembered it. "Everyone got it?" Vector asked. "And Charmy, don't forget to keep the camera on us!"_

_"All right!"_

_"Let's go!" The three detectives leapt to their feet and spun around to face the echidna, Vector and Espio clearly in fighting position. However, Knuckles did not stand on the shrine anymore—instead, a light orange female echidna stood there. She smiled kindly at the three._

_"Hello," she said. "Who are you?"_

_The brothers paused, staring at the girl. Vector suddenly pointed at her and declared, "Knuckles turned into a girl!"_

_"Whaaat?!"_

_"I don't think that can happen..."_

_The girl giggled. "No, no. Knuckles is my brother. My name is Tikal. What are your names?" After the three introduced themselves yet again, Tikal asked, "What are you doing here on Angel Island?"_

_"Is that what this place is called?" Espio inquired._

_"Yes. It's where Knuckles and I guard the Master Emerald."_

_"Is it where all of you live?"_

_"No. You live at your human residence, don't you?"_

_"Well, yeah..."_

_"What happened to Knuckles?" Espio cut to the chase._

_Tikal smiled kindly. "He got annoyed and left, saying it was my turn to guard the Master Emerald anyway. Though I'm sure he's not too far—there's no way he'd leave the Master Emerald alone with me and three strangers."_

_"Hmm..." Charmy scanned the area with his camera. The forest laid all around, its dark trees engulfing the land in wilderness. The mountain rose up in the middle of the forest, stretching magnificently towards the sky. "I don't see him," the bee commented._

_"Hey, miss, would you be willing to tell us who you are in real life?" Vector asked straight out._

_"Oh yeah, a real detective there..." Espio muttered sarcastically._

_"All right..." Tikal started and the three leaned in even more, "...but how do I know that you're not working with Eggman?"_

_"Eggman?"_

_"You mean my teacher, Dr. Eggman?"_

_"Wait, you mean to tell me that that evil doctor's your _teacher_?!"_

_"You've met him, Vector," Espio pointed out._

_"...Oh yeah..."_

_"If he's your teacher, you must be in my brother's class!" Tikal explained excitedly. "Maybe you could be friends and allies as humans and animals!"_

_"As long as he's not Miles Prower..." Espio muttered, thinking of his rival in chess._

_Tikal giggled. "No, he's not. Though I have heard there's a bunch of rivalries in your class..."_

_"Yeah. It's mainly between Kevin and Tim, and most people in the class have come to support one or the other."_

_"Which do you support?" Tikal asked curiously._

_"Kevin," Espio said quickly._ He's my friend, after all, _thought the chameleon._

_"Oh yeah, he's that rich friend of yours, right?" Vector asked. He then turned to Tikal. "...Hey wait a minute! We're not talking about Espio's class! We're talking about who your are in real life!"_

_"Vector, I'm bored..." Charmy complained as he played around with the camera's vision. "Let's do some detective work!"_

_"Why don't we make a deal?" Tikal suggested. "I trust you, so—"_

_Suddenly, a loud boom reached their ears. The camera jerked to the forest, where smoke was rising. Trees fell, creating more loud noises._

_"W-what's going on?!" Tikal yelled, horrified._

_"Espio! Check it out!" order the crocodile._

_"Right!" The chameleon merged in with his background, appearing invisible to all eyes, including the camera._

_Suddenly, a blue blur jumped out of the forest. It gracefully landed on a tree. The camera zoomed in to get a full picture of Sonic the Hedgehog, sticking his tongue out in mockery of someone or something below him. Sonic jumped up just before his tree jerked and fell to the ground. He left the camera's view too fast for the eye to see._

_"Wow..." Charmy breathed._

_"What'd you see?" Vector asked as the screen panned outwards._

_"Sonic! Sonic's in a battle!_

_"What?! We should go help him!"_

_"Oh no..." Tikal muttered. She summoned her bow and arrow and started running for the forest, Vector and the screen following quickly behind her._

_Just outside of the forest, they found Espio on the ground, all banged up._

_"E-Espio!"_

_"Are you all right?" the female echidna asked as she kneeled down next to him._

_"What happened to you?!" Vector demanded._

_Espio pulled himself up and stared at the group. "Sonic and Knuckles... they attacked me."_

_"WHAAAT?!"_

_"They were fighting, when some dust got in my nose... they heard me sneeze and immediately turned on me. They said something about Eggman's robots..."_

_"Espio...!"_

_"You stay here, Espio! We'll avenge you! Come on, Charmy!"_

_"Right!"_

_"Ah, wait for me!" Tikal called from behind them, but neither of them so much as turned back to see._

_As they emerged into a clearing, they found a blue blur and a red blur charging at each other. Knuckles and Sonic were locked in battle._

_"You don't have any need for it anyway!" yelled the hedgehog._

_"It doesn't change the fact that I got it out of hard work!" Knuckles argued._

_"Knuckles! Sonic!" Tikal called out. She turned to Vector, worry in her kind eyes. "Please, we have to stop them!"_

_"Leave it to me!" said the crocodile. He walked up to the battle. "All right, that's enough! You're—"_

_"DON'T GET IN OUR WAY!" the two yelled as they furiously attacked Vector, and then turned back on each other._

_Vector laid on the ground, twitching in pain. "I'm out..." he said._

_"Vector!"_

_"Oh no..."_

_"Hold the camera!" Charmy called. After the camera shifted, the bee flew forward. "BEE STINGER!" He yelled out as he charged for Sonic. Sonic stared at the bee, bored, before jumping out of his way. Charmy charged straight into a tree, where his stinger got stuck._

_"Charmy!" Tikal called out in worry._

_The battle raged on, destroying the forest around them._

_"How can they keep fighting like this?!" Tikal demanded. The screen jerked up and the screen moved in a circle, first facing the sky and then back to the forest. "Stop fighting!" Tikal yelled. The screen spun in rapid circles until it hit something... _hard.

_"Oww!" someone complained as the screen kept spinning. It soon hit something else, something that also complained. It ended when it landed in the grass, looking at the feet of the hedgehog and the male echidna._

_"Tikal...?"_

_"Ah... I'm sorry!" Tikal called out, worried. "I... I just wanted you two to stop fighting, and before I knew it, I..."_

_"Oww... Nice aim!" Sonic congratulated her._

_"But how did you manage to hit _me _too?" Knuckles demanded._

_"I-I don't really know... Ah, are you two okay?"_

"Rewind, please... I thought I saw something..."

_The screen rapidly scrolled back through the scenes that just happened._

"Tell me when to stop..."

"Now's good, thank you."

_Sonic and Knuckles now fought again in the eye of the camera._

_"How can they keep fighting like this?!" Tikal demanded. The screen jerked up and the screen moved in a circle, first facing the sky and then back to the forest. "Stop fighting!" Tikal yelled. The screen spun in rapid circles until it hit something..._ hard.

_"Oww!" someone complained as the screen kept spinning._

_The motion suddenly stopped. On the screen were trees titled diagonally and blurred from rapid movement. In the midst of the trees was something red and black, but other than that indistinguishable._

"So he's still here..." the Knight muttered.

"Who's still here?" asked the Bishop as he turned to look at his friend. Meanwhile, the Castle, who sat on a couch, had her hands up as if to cover her unseen mouth in surprise. The three and the King were in a large wooden room. The walls were made of wood, much like a cabin. There was one TV, which was of average size and equipped with many old video and gaming systems, some of which looked to be out of business. The TV itself didn't play very well—the four were lucky for its clear view now. The TV and its components sat on light wooden cabinets, whose doors were closed. A torn, green, oval rug was laid out in the center of the room. Two old couches sat on top of the rug, one facing the TV directly and one at an angle. Pictures, impossible to differentiate by dust, hung all over the wall. Three windows would look to the outside, but dark brown, old curtains hung over them. Books and magazines covered the few wooden cabinets and tables on the sides of the room. The coffee table was practically useless and looked really old. But none of the people in the room seemed to care about the dust or banged up objects... besides the TV. The Castle sat on the couch directly across from the TV, the King moving to stand behind her, suddenly interested. The Bishop and the Knight crouched next to the TV, though the Bishop slowly backed away to let the Knight take over.

"And that's not all..." the Knight said. She clicked "play," and the four watched the scene unfold before them again. She now paused it when the camera was on the ground, staring sideways at blades of grass and the feet of two people. "Just as I thought," the Knight continued. "Look closely."

Everyone stared intently at the screen, not understanding at first. The Bishop was the first to speak: "Hey, why is there still dew on the grass so late in the day?"

The King scowled at the TV, fury emitting from him.

"A-are you okay?" the Bishop asked.

"Hey, Knight..." the Castle called out, used to the King's temper by now, "how did you see those when the screen was moving so fast?"

The Knight giggled. "Your eyes get good when you watch a hedgehog."

"I'll second that!" the Bishop agreed.

"Oh..." The Castle stared down in thought. "So you've gotten better at watching... how have I changed physically...?"

Now the boy in red chuckled. "I should think that obvious. When I met you, you were this tall!" He exclaimed, holding his hand down below the Castle's head.

"I have grown a lot... But what if I'm too tall?" she asked, worry in her voice.

"Huh? But we're taller than you... You're still really short..."

"But you're humans, you're supposed to be that tall... Shouldn't I be shorter?"

"Haha! Relax," spoke the King. "You're a good size... Once I win, everything will be all right! And hey, if you get reborn again now, it'll be all the better, right?"

"...You're not going to beat Sonic..." the Castle muttered.

"Hey! I'm better than him! I'll kill him one da—" the King suddenly stopped short. "And by that, I mean... um..." He glanced around frantically until he found a window. He pointed to it and yelled (despite the window being covered), "Hey guys, look! I think Shadow's out there, um, break dancing!"

"EH?!" all three chorused as they immediately turned to the window, surprised. Upon finding that the window is covered, they turned back to the King, glaring... only to find that he wasn't standing there anymore.

"Ah! Where'd he go?!"

They soon heard a door slam, answering the Bishop's question. "Why'd he run...?"

"I guess we'll have to just wait for him to return," the Knight said.

"But shouldn't we chase after him?" asked the boy.

"Good luck... he's pretty fast for a human."

"Still, I'm worried about him..." the Castle mumbled. The other two turned to her curiously. "He saw something... that he probably shouldn't have..." _Was he hurt... by that? Does it still affect him...?_

"What do you mean...?" the Bishop asked.

"He'll be fine," assured the older girl. "He's strong... It's in his nature to be. Besides, I'm more worried about what'll happen if he starts delving into our little secret." The Knight turned her attention from the Castle to the Bishop.

"Secret? What secret?" asked the confused boy.

"It'll be fine," said the Castle. "He tends to be slow, right? He's not the best at catching on to things like that... Hey, Bishop? Just remember to keep your promise to me, okay?"

"Huh? Okay..." _That's right..._ the Bishop thought. _What she made me promise before I came here..._

----

I'll try not to be so long with the next one! It'll be Valentine's Day for Sonic and the others... heh heh...

Good luck!  
Sonic Triple Kingdom  
-Ayame


	14. Valentine Chaos

Between losing a whole scene, writer's block, school, moving, and whatever else happened, this has been a hard chapter to complete... but it's a fun chapter. Sorry for taking so long on it! Thank you again for all of your reviews!

And thank you for your nominations! Feel free to continue nominating the boys and girls only parts... now you can nominate characters of either gender for the following parts:

Either male or female parts: The Mystic Friend, the Kid, the Detective, the Evil Tactician, the Evil Powerhouse, the Evil General, the Evil Scientist, the Ninja, the Messenger, the Robot

I know it's a lot of parts, but have fun with it! If there's not enough, there are some parts that can be dropped... but I'll decide that when it's time.

And one more thing... more definite couples! You'll definitely see in this story... (I'm using animal names for this, even if the love thing is in human form)...

Knuckles and Rouge like each other, Amy likes Sonic, Sonic likes Tikal (a tiny bit), Tikal likes Shadow, Shadow likes Amy, Mike likes every pretty girl, Alicia (OC not introduced yet) likes Knuckles, John likes Alice, Alice likes the King, the King likes Tikal (maybe), Yuri (made by Delta Operator) likes Tikal, Josiah (made by Crystal and Krystal) likes Sam, Sam likes Sonic, Espio likes Jen (made by Starry-chan)...

Vector likes Vanilla...

Bokkun likes Cream, Charmy likes Cream, Cream will eventually like Charmy...

Hope (OC that will come in in chapter 16) likes Tails, the Castle likes Tails.

There might be changes to this, depending on what happens. Hopefully I'll be able to post a diagram up somewhere when I have good internet again. And with that, enjoy the story!

Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, or any other character from the Sonic games or Sonic X (including their human forms). They're owned by Sonic Team and SEGA.

**--Valentine Chaos--**

"Hey Miles," Tim greeted as he sat down next to Miles at lunch. None of their other friends were there yet, so Tim took this opportunity to ask Miles for help. "Did you understand what Egg-head was talking about in English?" _...Maybe fighting Knuckles on a school night wasn't the best idea..._ Tim added in his mind. _At least he's not mad anymore... and I have another Chaos Emerald... Hm, maybe I should give it to Tails after school, since he earned it..._

"You mean irony?" inquired the younger boy; Tim nodded. "Of course. Irony is when you expect one thing, but something completely different happens." Meeting his friend's confused face, Miles began to elaborate, "Like—"

"_I am not getting defensive!_" Kevin boomed in a very defensive manner, making heads turn.

"Like that. That's a good example of irony," Miles finished.

Tim stared to find Kevin talking to a young lady with long, orange hair and emerald green eyes. _It's that girl again... wasn't she talking to Kevin before or something?_ Tim thought. Out loud, the teenager curiously asked, "Who's that? And why is she talking to an idiot like Kevin?"

Ruby happened to be walking by them when she heard the question. Without stopping in her trek, she answered, "She's Kevin's sister."

Tim's mouth hung. "N-no way!" he gasped, surprised.

"And that's another fine example of irony," Miles said.

Kevin's sister happily greeted Ruby, unaware of the surprise that she caused.

----

"Tomorrow's Valentine's day! It's going to be so much fun!"

"I'm giving my boyfriend this huge box of chocolates..."

"I hear it's supposed to rain tomorrow, though." Girls happily gossiped about the upcoming holiday all around the school.

"Hey Karen," one girl said, "do you have anyone special for tomorrow?"

Karen stared up from her book, surprised. "Me? No, of course not." With a chuckle, she added, "I'm more worried about helping Ruby give my brother a surprise."

"You're too kind, Kar. You need to find a guy to spend the day with! You're not going to have another chance for a whole year!"

"But I'll have another chance, when I find someone I _love_," Karen pointed out. "Right now I'm not interested in anyone." Just then, the bell rang. Karen gathered up her stuff and carefully stashed it in her book bag.

"See you later, Karen!"

"Bye, have fun," Karen said as she slung her book bag over her shoulder. She then took off down the hall, headed for Kevin's class. _Mom's going to be mad if we both don't go straight home... She's been very protective lately... probably because of Dr. Eggman._ Deep in thought, Karen didn't notice where she was going until after she ran into someone. Taken by surprise, she tripped and fell backwards onto her back.

"Ow," she mumbled. Quickly picking herself up, she said to the person she bumped into, "Sorry about that, I wasn't watching where I was going."

She stared at a boy that looked about her age. He had short black hair that jetted out in a spiky-looking manner. He almost seemed to glare at Karen though his crimson red eyes. "...It's fine," he muttered curtly.

Staring past the boy, Karen realized that he must've walked out of Kevin's classroom. "Hey, you're not Espio by any chance, are you?"

"Who?" asked the boy, startled.

"Never mind. My brother's in your class."

"...That's nice," the boy said, obviously not caring. He moved around Karen to head out of the school.

Karen watched him go, a minor blush on her cheeks.

"Karen?" a familiar voice asked. Karen jerked around to see her brother standing there. Her face grew redder as she grew embarrassed without knowing why. "Are you okay?"

"Y-yeah! I'm perfectly fine!"

"Hey, Karen!" Ruby greeted as she popped out of the classroom.

"Ruby!"

Ruby walked over to the younger girl, looking past him. Leaning down, Ruby whispered, "Well well, looks like you set your eyes on a guy. Wanna learn some tricks?"

"Ehhh? No, that's not what I..."

"He happens to be a friend of mine. Maybe I could help you... if you help me with your brother. We have a deal?"

"S-sure..." Karen mumbled before she thought about it, very nervous.

"All right, one rule, though: don't tell your brother about your crush. Trust me, it'd be better like that. Anyway, that guy... his name's Hiei."

_Hiei, eh?_ Karen repeated in her head. _W-wait a minute, I've only just met him! And it's just a minor crush or something... it's probably because my friends were so insistent on Valentine's Day tomorrow... I just won't worry about him and help Ruby and Kevin out! Karen decided._

----

The next morning, an alarm sounded in the Parker house. Hiei threw a pillow over his ears to cover up the sound, but to no avail. He groggily stared at the clock to find that it was only 4:10 in the morning. Thoroughly annoyed with the loud noise, he threw his covers off and stormed to his brother's door. Hiei slammed the door open and practically yelled, "What are you _thinking_ having your alarm go off this early on a weekend night?"

Tim jolted up, surprised by the angry teen. He tiredly stared at the time and said, "...Good question..." He slowly reached up and turned the alarm off and then looked up again to meet his twin's annoyed glare. "...What?"

"You woke me up."

"Sorry." Still receiving a hard glare, Tim then said, "What else do you want me to—wait. What's today?"

"February fourteenth."

The blue haired boy suddenly jumped to his feet. "I have to go."

"What craziness are you talking about _now_...?"

"It's Valentine's Day. Emily will _attack_ me if she sees me at all today," Tim explained as he hurried around the room, throwing clothes and various games and stuff in a bag. "That's why I set my alarm so early..."

"You didn't have to wake me up for that..."

"Sorry, Hiei! But thanks for waking me up. Tell Dad that I'm at Miles' house." He walked past Hiei and into the hallway before pausing and turning back with one last thought, "Oh, yeah, and if Emily comes looking for me, tell her that I'm sick—very sick. Contagious. Got it?"

"If you're sick then maybe you should _act_ it..."

"No way! I'd rather have fun while I'm out!"

"Whatever. I'm going back to bed," Hiei muttered as he trudged back to his room.

"Thanks, bro!" Tim called behind the other boy. With his bag over his shoulder, he grinned softly to himself as he walked downstairs. The walls were a light shade of blue, and the carpet a light brown, but shadows now painted both a darker shade in the dark house. Pictures of the family hung on the wall, hard to see now through the darkness. _This is the perfect plan..._ Tim thought happily. _I'll hurry to the workshop as Sonic, catch some extra sleep in a tree or something, and then get some training! Finally, no more Valentine's Day! Who ever came up with that day, anyway? It's the worst possible day..._ Proud of his plan, Tim kept walking downstairs without any attention as to where he was going. _Emily will never find me as Son_—he missed the last step and fell to the floor—_ic..._ "Ow..."

"Idiot..." his brother's voice called down from above.

Tim picked himself up, annoyed. _I thought I was done falling..._ Without another word, he snuck through the back door and out of the house. Once outside, he quickly turned to his hedgehog form and jumped clear away from his house and onto the streets. He took off at a jog, wanting to the workshop and still be tired enough for sleep. The cool night air nipped at him on the streets—he was the only one out. He paused a minute just to stare at the empty streets. Never before had he seen the main roads so void of life. Not even the sound of birds reached his ears. Somehow, the quiet felt almost... serene, like the world was his, and his alone. He found himself content in the silence and emptiness, much to his surprise.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" a voice asked from behind Sonic.

"Yeah," answered the hedgehog without turning his head. He didn't feel any need to turn and look at his young companion. For once, the hedgehog felt calm... or maybe just tired. As his eyes started to droop, he started to realize that maybe he was just tired. _Guess this is what happens when I wake up at four in the morning... _

"Here, have some breakfast. It'll get you to the workshop at least," the person behind him offered. Sonic finally turned his head, half asleep, to see the person. He found himself face-to-face with the Bishop, who was offering Sonic a hotdog. "Sorry it's not a chilidog... I didn't have time to make one on such a short notice."

"Thanks," the hedgehog said as he accepted the food. He quickly started munching on it. With his mouth full, he said, "Ho'd ou ow I wa ere?"

With a laugh, the Bishop said, "Don't talk with your mouth full! Ah, I guess I forgot to bring a drink..."

After gulping down his bite, Sonic repeated his question: "How'd you know I was here?"

"I didn't really. Castle and Knight were talking about Valentine's Day... and then I realized that you'd probably try to run from it," the Bishop explained.

"Haha, you know me... hey wait, how _do_ all of you guys know me?"

"Isn't it obvious? You're the hero, Sonic the Hedgehog!"

"I just became a hero, though... unless you're talking about that previous life. If you are, though, no one seems to remember it."

"Yeah, I was wondering about that, too..."

Sonic took another large bite of the hotdog. When he finished that bite, he said, "Too bad it doesn't have chili."

"Sorry," the Bishop said. "I'll try to get some next time."

Sonic quickly finished the hotdog up. "Thanks for the food. I'm going to bed now."

"All right. Sleep well!"

"Thanks. See ya!" With that, Sonic zoomed off towards the workshop.

"See you later, Sonic..." the Bishop muttered, staring in the direction he went until well after the blue hedgehog was gone.

Upon arrival at the workshop, Sonic immediately noticed something in front of the door. A little pink package sat on the ground, leaning against the door. Curious, Sonic picked it up. Turning it over in his hands, he found no address or name of any kind. The hedgehog quickly removed the wrapping paper to reveal a red box with a lovely red and white lacy ribbon and two words written in very neat handwriting on it: "To Tails." More curious than ever, Sonic searched all over the box without breaking a seal, searching to find who it was from. However, he found no name. _Does Tails have a secret admirer...? Or is this a friend of his...? Hm, I guess I should tell him about this..._ Conveniently forgetting that it was four in the morning, Sonic reached for his watch and clicked the yellow button. "Hey, Tails?" After a moment of silence, Sonic continued, "Taaaillls! Are you there? I have something for you! ...Tails? Is everything okay? You could answer, you know..."

"Unn?" a sleepy voice came from the watch.

"Hi Tails! Is everything okay?"

"Why are you calling me at this time...?" the tired voice slowly asked.

"What time is it?" Sonic asked out loud as he finally opened the workshop door and stared at a clock in the workshop: 4:35. "Oh! Right, sorry Tails!"

Tails moaned to show that he half acknowledged Sonic.

"Well, someone left a package for you... come pick it up at the workshop when you wake up..."

Another moan came through the watch.

"Night, Tails."

Sonic heard no more sounds as he set the package on the table. The workshop looked the same as before, only with a digital clock on the wall next to the refrigerator and a full grocery list... mostly in Sonic's handwriting. "I wonder when he's going shopping... we really need some more snacks and entertainment here." With a yawn and a stretch, Sonic added, "And a bed..." He then walked outside, closing the door behind him. He jumped into a tree and made himself comfortable before going back to sleep.

----

"Sick? What do you mean sick?" Emily demanded later on that day as she stood at the front door, talking to Hiei Parker.

"He suddenly decided to come down with a fever. And the doctor said that it's very contagious, so he's not to see anyone," explained Tim's brother. _You owe me for this, Tim,_ Hiei thought.

Emily sighed. "But I wanted to give him these chocolates today..." She stared at the ground sadly.

"I can deliver them for you."

"That's not the same! I have to give them to Tim myself!" Emily explained stubbornly. "I know! Is there anything I can do around the house to help him feel better?"

"He's sleeping right now," Hiei lied nonchalantly. "Other than him resting, there's nothing that needs to be done."

"O-oh..." Emily mumbled, staring at the ground. Hiei couldn't help but feel sorry for the miserable girl, and opened his mouth to offer for her to come inside when he realized that that might just reveal the lie. So instead, he stood in silence, clutching the door.

Once she gathered her nerves again, Emily smiled up to her friend. "Okay, then will one of you call my cell phone if there's anything I can do, or if there's any chance I can see him today?"

"Sure."

"If not, then tell him to get well soon for me! A-and I guess I'll give him the chocolates tomorrow..."

"All right."

"Bye, Hiei! Thank you!" Emily said as she spun around and took off at a run.

Hiei watched in silence, feeling bad for lying to her. _But it would've been worse if I told her the truth, right...? Geez, Tim, why do you have to go and hurt everyone around you?_ he thought, annoyed. As Hiei turned to go inside, he felt something wet and cold touch his head. He looked up to see large gray clouds falling over the city, brining rain quickly with them. The teenager turned inside and shut the door behind him. _I wonder where Tim is..._ Outside, he heard the rain falling faster and faster. Bored, Hiei walked into the living room. It was a nice open room with plain white walls and a brown carpet. There were two couches facing the TV, which was equipped with many video and game systems. There was a coffee table in front of the biggest couch and a table between the couches with a phone resting on it; the couches sat at a ninety-degree angle to each other. He sat on the couch, remote controller in hand and idly turned on the TV. As he flipped through the channels, his crimson eyes caught something blue and strange on the ground in the city on the screen. Hiei flipped the channel back a few to find a normal news report. Guess I was just seeing things... Suddenly the phone began to ring. The boy picked it up. "Hello?"

"Shadow! There's something strange on Cherry Street. I want you to go see what it is," Dr. Eggman's voice commanded over the phone.

"Why me?"

"I'm working on a machine and Ruby's on a date. I don't know if it's an ally or an enemy of Sonic's, but we need to find out."

Hiei sighed. "Fine, I'll go. ...I think I know where it is." After hanging up the phone, the teen turned off the television and headed for the door. On his way out, he grabbed a jacket to throw on and an umbrella for the rain. He opened the navy blue umbrella as he stepped out the door.

----

"Geez, why does it have to rain? And why do I have to play delivery boy?" Sonic practically shouted as he walked down the wet street, the package for Tails under his right arm. _"Sorry, Sonic,"_ he remembered the fox saying over the watch, _"but you kinda caught me at a bad time... could you bring the package here? It should take you no time with how fast you are!"_ "Now if only I could _find_ this place..." the boy muttered, annoyed. He paid no notice as the people on the streets stared and pointed at him. "What was it called... Electronic something..." He glanced around at the shop names in the city. _Well, only one of those around. That must be it._ He quickly strolled into the store.

"Welcome—um, hedgehog?" a voice greeted him. _Talk about generic electronics store…_ The store was somewhat small. Games for all current systems lines the walls in front with the game systems near them. Older games stood in cases near the center. In the back of the store, or what he could see, he noticed computer gadgets and programs. Although he couldn't see them, he knew that the computers were in the very back of the store, along the wall. _Come to think of it, I've been here before..._ Customers stared at the various products, searching or considering. In the crowed, he noticed a young pink hedgehog.

"Huh? Amy?" Sonic burst out, surprised. The girl turned to him, shocked as well.

"Sonic! I didn't expect to run into you here!" she exclaimed as she hurried over to him. She looked completely normal except that she, too, held a medium-sized red package in her hands. The blue hedgehog couldn't help but notice a tint of sadness on her face.

"Something wrong?"

"N-no, nothing! I'm perfectly fine!" She glanced down at the box Sonic held. "Are you delivering that to someone?" she asked curiously as her heart be a little faster than normal. She put her hand on it, inwardly trying to calm herself down. _I like Tim! I like Tim!_

"Huh?" Sonic followed her eyes down to the box. "Oh, yeah. It's for Tails," he answered nonchalantly.

Amy felt her eyebrow twitch. "What?"

"This was made _just_ for him, but he couldn't come down to the workshop for it, so—"

"Sonic..." Amy muttered as she began fuming.

"What? What'd I say?" the flabbergasted teenager asked.

"I don't believe you! After all I..."

"What do you mean—" Suddenly, it dawned on him. "Wait, no! I'm not—I mean, that's not what I was—this isn't from me!" he yelled, making the whole store turn to stare at him. Embarrassed, he whispered to Amy, "How could you even _think_ that?"

"Well, you weren't making it seem like it wasn't," the girl whispered back.

"Someone left it at the workshop!"

"So then it's not from you?"

"NO! It's not!"

Amy breathed easily. "Don't scare me like that..."

"You think _you_ were scared...!" the boy hedgehog muttered, annoyed. "...Hey, wait, why _were_ you scared?"

"Ah—! I-it's nothing!" Amy said quickly, her face turning pink. She turned around to glance around the store. "Um... So, is Tails around here, then?"

"I think so... unless I have the wrong store?" He, too, glanced around. When his eyes landed back on his friend, he found her smiling at him. "What?"

She giggled. "Your face is still red!" _It's kinda cute!_ she added in her head.

Sonic whipped around so that she couldn't see his face anymore. "It is not!"

"Sonic!" a hyper voice called out. Both hedgehogs turned to find the young fox hurrying towards them from the back of the store.

"Hey, Tails! Where have you been?" Sonic questioned.

"Sorry, I had to finish up some stuff first!" Tails answered. "Hello, Amy!"

"Hi, Tails."

"So, Sonic, you said you had something for me?" the fox asked inquisitively.

Sonic's face turned red again, and Amy giggled. Sonic threw a glare at her before thrusting the package in Tails' arms. "Yeah. Someone left it at the workshop this morning." The fox then proceeded to look it over for a name. Finding none, he curiously opened the box.

Inside the box he found a bunch of chocolates. "Eeehh? Chocolates? For me?" Sonic's young friend exclaimed, surprised. "Who left these?"

"No clue. They were there when I arrived. Though that person must've come pretty early... Do you know anyone who might be a secret admirer? Unless... are you hiding some girl from us?" the hedgehog teased as he nudged his best friend jokingly.

"N-no! I don't! I-I only know all of you as a fox, no one more! I-I swear!"

"I don't know, maybe they're from Sonic," Amy mocked.

"Hey, cut that out!" Amy burst out laughing, and Sonic couldn't help but grin. "I'm straight already! Now enough on that subject!"

"Did something happen?" Tails asked, confused.

"No!"

"Yes!"

The fox stared at the two, now even more puzzled. "Um..."

Sonic glanced around, looking for a way to change the subject. His eyes rested on the box that Tails held. "So how do they taste?" Tails followed the hedgehog's gaze down, startled. He quickly stuffed one in his mouth. After a moment's pause, the fox proceeded to quickly stuff a handful more into his mouth.

"Tails?"

"I-isn't that a lot of sugar?" Amy and Sonic stared at the younger boy, awed.

After completely finishing what he had in his mouth, he smiled at his friends. "Nope! It's really good! Ah...!

"Something wrong?"

"How will I ever thank the person that gave this to me if I don't know who they are?" he asked, really worried.

"I kinda think that might have been the point..." Sonic attempted to point out.

"B-but I have to do something... they even knew my favorite...!"

The intercom of the store beeped on. "Miles Prower, please come to register two, Miles Prower, please come to register two," the monotone voice said. Tails spun around to find the lines growing too long for his friend at the front counters. Panicking, Tails quickly thought of what he should say to Sonic and Amy. "U-um..." he muttered, barely audible.

_Miles Prower?_ both hedgehogs thought, completely thrown off. _He works here?_

"I have to go," Sonic quickly said.

"Yeah, me too!" Amy agreed.

"Talk to you later, Tails!"

"Um... bye?" the fox attempted to call, but both of his friends were already out the door and dashing off in opposite directions. Tails used this moment to slip to the bathrooms in order to change back into his human form without anyone noticing. As a human again, he jogged up front. "Sorry about that!" he told his fellow employee as he took his place at the cash register. "I'll take the next person over here!" He stuffed the box under the counter as a customer walked up. Happily helping to deal with the customers, he failed to notice Timothy Parker enter the store. Time swiftly grabbed a good-looking game and hopped in line. A few seconds later, Emily Camilla stepped in, wet from the rain. She immediately noticed Tim and paused, her jaw dropped.

"T-Tim!" she called as she ran to him, he arms spread out in front of her. She didn't even heed the box of chocolates that she dropped at the door. "You're better!"

"E-Emily!" Tim yelped back, terrified. He threw his hands up to stop her and caught her hands in front of him, trying to keep the death-hug away. Fury flamed in the girl's green eyes as she realized what was going on. "You... you played sick, didn't you?" she demanded, infuriated. "You actually got Hiei to lie for you and tell me that you were sick so you wouldn't have to see me today! I can't believe you, Timothy!"

Tim faltered. "I-i-it was—I was... I wasn't feeling so good this morning! I woke up on the wrong side of the bed! I-I..."

"Stop lying!" Emily yelled, pushing harder than ever to get past Tim's defense. "When I get to you, Tim, I'll..."

"W-wait! Don't attack me! I'm not fully recovered yet! I'm serious! I-I'll get sick again!"

"You'll get _better_ after I beat some sense into you!"

"Noooo!"

Meanwhile, people in the store stared at the two and whispered amongst themselves, pointing mainly at Tim. Miles also stared, awe-struck. _What are_ they _doing here...? _he thought to himself. _And they're creating a scene..._

"Emily, don't attack me here! We're in a store! You'll destroy everything!" Tim attempted to argue.

Glaring, the girl threw down her hands. "Fine, since Miles works here. But as soon as we exit..."

Tim gulped. _I'll be_ faaaar _away before you can hit me..._

"It's your fault, you know. If you hadn't lied to me, I wouldn't have a reason to be mad at you!" Still angry, she stormed over to the door and picked up the box of chocolates she had previously discarded. "After I worked so hard to make these for you..."

"You could've had Hiei deliver them to me."

"It's not the same!" the girl yelled as she turned on him.

"Okay, okay, I get it. Sheesh..."

Emily walked back over and held the box out to him, her head bowed low. "You'll take them, won't you...?"

Her friend paused, wanting the chocolates and yet not wanting to accept them from her on Valentine's Day. _I guess this whole thing is my fault, though... Geez, why'd I change back again? Oh yeah, Miles..._ Grudgingly, he took the package. "All right, whatever."

"And you won't do that again?"

"I won't if I don't have a reason to."

"Timothy! Promise me that you won't do that again!"

"Okay, I won't!" he said, but behind his back he had his fingers crossed.

"I see your fingers! You will, won't you!"

"Uh..."

"TIMOTHY!"

"Hey look, the line's moving!" the boy said loudly as he stepped forward across the large gap they had created. Emily folded her arms and followed him, furious.

"I'll take the next customer!" the cashier next to Miles announced to Tim and Emily. Tim allowed the next person behind him to go first and continued waiting until Miles finished with the customer he talked to. Without being invited, Tim scurried over to his best friend's counter. "Hey, Miles!"

"Tim! Emily! I didn't expect to see you two here! Are you on a date?"

"No!"

"Yes!"

Tim glared at the girl next to him. Miles grinned, thinking, _That's just like them..._ He scanned the game and said, "Will this be all?"

"Yeah... and about that, I didn't know you worked here! Why didn't you ever tell me?"

"I didn't even know you were old enough to work!" Emily agreed.

"I guess it just never came up. The school's allowed for me to work, though, so luckily this store accepted me," Miles answered, smiling as he tapped some buttons on the screen of the computer. Tim blinked, noticing a hint of nervousness on Miles' face. "That'll be one thousand and fifty rings."

Tim reached into his pocket and pulled out two golden rings with starts in the center of them—each worth a thousand rings. He placed them on the counter. "How are things going with your Mom and Millie?"

"Same as usual." The younger boy grabbed the rings and opened the cash register, where he pulled out a silver ring with a star in the middle. He grabbed the receipt and placed it in the bag, and, as he handed it and the change to Tim, he continued, "Millie's planted some flowers—she'll probably invite you two to see them when they've bloomed."

"I can't wait!" Emily said.

"I'll talk to you later, Tim, Emily!"

"Okay, see ya!"

"Bye, Miles."

The two walked slowly to the door. As soon as Tim got one foot out the door and in the rain, he took off at a run, Emily chasing close behind him. Miles smiled to himself as he watched them go.

----

Hiei walked down the sidewalk with his umbrella over him, but the rain still soaked his feet. He glanced around, looking for the unidentified creature. The street was not very busy, but most who did walk it huddled in pairs under umbrellas. The cars zoomed by at a more leisurely pace than normal, searching for places to park.

"Yo, Chaos!" a familiar-sounding voice caught Hiei's attention. He turned to find the cause of the voice, but most of the people around he did not recognize. Only one person held any question. The man wore a black cloak with a hood covering his face and gloves on his hands. _Do I know him...?_ Hiei wondered as he stared at the person. The man held a navy blue umbrella over his head and stared down at a puddle of water. "...Still as talkative as ever, I see," the cloaked person said sarcastically. "After all the trouble I took to find you."

_...I doubt I know him,_ Hiei reconsidered as he watched the person talk to a puddle of water. _He seems to be crazy._ Hiei began to walk away.

"It seems Hiei Parker came looking for you, too!" the man continued. Hiei paused again and turned to gaze again, now startled. The puddle of water suddenly lurched out at the man, who swiftly threw his umbrella in front for defense and leaped backwards to dodge. "Geez, you don't have to be so violent!" the person said, his black cloak now getting soaked in the rain.

_It's the creature!_ Hiei realized as his eyes moved down to the puddle of water. The cloaked man turned to the teenager.

"Hello, Shadow. Allow me to introduce myself. I'm the one known as the King."

_He knows who I am! And..._ "Another chess piece? Do the other three work for you, then?"

"Sorta. There's a Queen and some pawns, too," the King replied. "Oh, I guess I forgot to tell Tails, Knuckles, and Rouge that much. Oh well, I'll just have to gather you all up and properly introduce myself later. How does that sound?"

"Are we supposed to be part of your 'game'?"

"Yep!"

"And if I don't participate?"

"Sorry, but... you don't really have a choice in that." The King spun around, his cloak barely moving from being pulled down by the water. "Sorry, but my time is short. Chaos, I'll come back for you when you've cooled down some... now that I know where to find you..." With that, the enigma walked down some stairs leading to the subway and seemed to vanish. Hiei turned to the puddle of water and stared at it, wondering if the creature was still there. Soon the puddle began to creep slowly down the sidewalk. Curious, the teenage boy followed it, acting casual. He searched for a reason for its movement, yet made sure that he still pursued the thing. _Chaos... that was what he called it, right?_

Hiei soon realized that Chaos seemed to be trailing a girl. The girl had long, orange hair and had a warm red coat on. She wore a long, dark orange skirt and wet white tennis shoes. She had a bracelet on her right wrist, and in that hand she held a red umbrella over her head. _Is it after that girl? What does it want with her?_ The girl glanced around the dark street nervously. Hiei recognized her face. _It's that girl that I met at the school the other day! The one who said her brother was in my class... Does she have some connection to this whole thing? Why else would Chaos be after her?_ The girl turned to stare Hiei directly in the eyes. Hiei halted, alarmed. _Oh great, now it looks like I've been following her..._

"You're Hiei, right?" she asked, and the boy nodded. "I'm sorry to bother you again, but... I-I think I made a wrong turn somewhere..." The girl blushed, embarrassed. _I should know the streets better than this... but it's dark... and rainy..._ she thought, flustered.

Hiei sighed. "Where are you trying to go?"

"I'm looking for North Cloud Street."

"That's a dangerous street when it's this dark..."

The girl smiled. "Thank you for your concern, but I'll be all right."

_Not with that monster following you, _the boy thought dryly. "You passed it. Come on." Hiei turned and started to walk away, and the girl trotted to catch up to him.

"Ah, you don't have to take me—"

"My house is that way anyways. I'm bored of this walk," Hiei lied as he glanced behind him to see if Chaos was following; and sure enough, the puddle of water trailed behind the two.

"Oh, thank you... My name's Karen."

Hiei nodded his acknowledgement and continued walking in silence. They reached an intersection, where they crossed the street and proceeded down North Cloud Street. As the street seemed to grow darker, Chaos seemed to grow anxious. It began bubbling loudly behind them, making both humans turn in alarm.

"W-what's going on?" Karen asked as she stared at the bubbling puddle.

"I don't think we want to find out..."

A blue, pointy head slowly rose up from the puddle of water. The creature was made of water, with a visible brain inside its head. It had shining green eyes, and in the back its head split off into two spikes like long pigtails. Its body was shaped like that of a human, but it had two claws on each hand and foot. It had a small tail as well.

"What is that...?" Karen asked, a tint of fear in her voice. Thunder boomed and lightening struck the city, lighting up the area for a brief second. Karen fell to her knees and dropped her umbrella, her face white. "I-I've... seen this... before..."

"What do you mean?" the boy next to her demanded.

She blinked and stared up at him, seeming to regain her senses. "This creature is dangerous. Hurry, you must get away!"

Chaos burst into sprinkles of water and seemed to merge with the rain. Hiei abandoned his own umbrella and grabbed Karen's wrist. "Come on!" He bolted off, taking the girl with him. He slammed through the first public door he saw, where he finally stopped. They were in a small coffee shop.

Most of the chairs in the shop were full, save four surrounding a table. The teenagers walked over to that chair and sat down.

"We should be safe here... we'll at least see it if it tries anything," Hiei said. _I'll fight it when the rain clears out. Right now it has the perfect battle ground..._ "Now, what were you saying about how you've seen it before?"

Karen nodded. "It was only for a second... but now there's no doubt in my mind—that creature gravely wounded the person next to me."

"Why?"

"I-I don't know..." Karen stared at the table, not wanting to talk about it any more than she had to.

"It must be after you then... but why?" Hiei wondered out loud.

"I'm not so sure..." Hiei's companion mumbled, but he couldn't hear her. In her head, she thought, _Last time, I might have died if it hadn't come... but still, what it did to that man..._ She blinked, trying to clear her mind. Turning to Hiei, she said, "I'm sorry, your clothes are all wet now because of me... My house is close, so you can borrow some of my brother's clothes if you want."

"I'll be fine. Besides, we have to wait for the rain to clear out anyway."

"Oh, right..." After a moment of silence, Karen stood up. "Would you like something to drink, then? My treat since you helped me out!"

Hiei shrugged. "I guess. How about a hot chocolate?"

"All right, I'll be right back!" the girl said excitedly as she ran to the back of the store, where the counter was. She waited in line for her turn to order something while Hiei rested in his chair.

_I hate running like this, but it's the wisest thing to do in this case... And now I have a girl to watch after... it'd be easier to fight if I didn't have her tagging along. Wait, _Hiei's thoughts paused as something suddenly occurred to him, _isn't it Valentine's Day...? Tim is never going to let this go if she sees me hanging out with a girl today... But he's hiding, so I should be safe..._ The image of a certain bat flashed in his head. _Never mind. She'd also make fun of me if she saw this... Maybe I should run while I have the chance..._

"Here you go!" Karen said as she handed Hiei a hot chocolate. She held that and a drink for herself in her right hand and a chocolate cake in the left. Hiei took the drink as Karen placed the cake on the table. "I got some food, too... I didn't know what you'd like, but then I saw the chocolate cake... I hope that's okay! Oh, but I also got an apple pie. You can have that if you'd rather it."

"...Thanks," Hiei muttered. "The cake's fine."

Karen set her drink down and then rushed back to the counter. When she returned, she held an apple pie and two sets of silverware. She distributed all of them and began eating her apple pie while Hiei ate his cake.

Half of the time they sat in silence, while the other half Karen attempted to carry a conversation, but she didn't get much help from her new friend. Once the rain cleared, they left the café and resumed their walk down North Cloud Street. Without a conversation topic, they walked in silence.

Neither noticed Kevin and Ruby waiting for the light to change at an intersection. Kevin, noticing his sister with his enemy's brother, glared at Hiei. "Oi, why are _they_ walking together?"

Ruby, on the other hand, grinned. Like normal, she wore a tight, showy outfit. She carried a bag in her left hand. "Well it _is_ Valentine's Day," she pointed out.

"That makes it worse!" Kevin yelled. He began to walk across the street with the walk symbol. "He's not allowed to be with my sister!"

"Just a minute," Ruby said as she grabbed Kevin's arm.

"Let me go!"

"Calm down, calm down. He's probably just being a gentleman and walking her home," Ruby suggested, but she knew that couldn't be the case. _Shadow? A gentleman? Heh heh, I can't wait to hear about this one!_

"I don't care what he's doing, he should leave my sister alone!"

Ruby sighed. "Here, Kevie, I have something for you! I was going to wait to give it to you, but..." _...I need to let Karen have her chance with Hiei..._ Ruby thought deviously. She released his arm to reach in the bag and pull out a box, which she immediately handed to Kevin.

"What's this?" Kevin asked, confused.

"Open it up."

He did, only to find an assortment of chocolates. "Chocolates?" he stared, now even _more_ confused. "What for?"

Ruby sighed. "I thought we went over this already. It's Valentine's Day."

Kevin's face turned even redder than his hair. "Wha... WHAAAAT?"

Ruby grinned and grabbed her best friend's arm again. She tugged on it. "Come on, get out of the street or you'll get run over."

The boy hopped back up on the curb, his face still red. His friend giggled. "Oh come on, I give you chocolates every year."

"Y-you do?"

"Have you really not noticed? Geez, nothing _ever_ gets through that thick skull of yours, does it?"

For once, the red head didn't answer, but simple stared at the chocolates, embarrassed.

"You can eat them, you know. It's normal to get chocolates on Valentine's Day."

"I-I know that!"

"Then why are you so embarrassed, Kevie?"

----

Tim didn't arrive home until late, and as soon as he got in, he collapsed on the large couch in the living room.

"Man, I'm beat!"

"It sounds like you had a little _too_ much fun," Hiei quipped from the smaller couch. He watched TV while eating popcorn.

"More like the opposite. Emily caught me!"

"So your plan failed..."

"Yeah... this morning was so nice, too!"

"I guess you learned your lesson, then?" inquired the black haired twin.

"Yeah... next time I'll have to be more careful!" Tim concluded.

"That's... not quite what I meant..."

Hiei's cell phone rang, so he answered it as his brother sat up. "Hello?"

"Hey Shadow!" Rouge greeted. "So, did you and Karen have a nice walk?"

"...Shut up."

"Then you tell me all about it!"

"How about _not_."

"Pleeeeassse? I protected you from her brother!"

"And who would that be exactly...?"

"Kevin!"

"...You're not serious," Hiei replied, while Tim watched curiously.

"What's going on? Who're you talking to?"

"It's nothing!" Hiei quickly replied.

"Did something happen today?" the boy with blue hair asked.

"No!"

"Come on, tell us about it, Shadow!" Rouge begged over the phone.

"There's nothing to tell!"


End file.
